Second Chance
by FictionalCharactersAreBetter
Summary: Second Chances aren't something that come along very often. But Shane and Claire's lives haven't been the same since they've gone their seperate ways, but when their second chance comes along, will they take it despite what's happened in the past and the consequences the future holds for them? Please read and review! :)
1. Hello Again

Chapter 1

**Shane's POV**

Sitting here in vamp central, with my two vampire best friends, isn't exactly how I imagined my life about 20 years ago. Firstly, I thought I'd be out of Morganville, and secondly I thought I would still be with Claire. I don't even know why I was summoned to see Amelie, I didn't do anything. I just do what I normally do, sleep to about midday, go to work (which vaguely involved cutting up large amounts of meat, ready to be BBQed) and then drink myself to sleep, either at a bar or back at the Glass House. The bar normally resulted in me getting in a fight or getting laid with some girl who I'd never see again. And yes, I still live with Eve and Michael, despite both being vamps and married, they wouldn't kick me out. I guess they felt sorry for me after what happened with Claire, and they couldn't see their best friend on the streets, but living with two, madly in love, _married _vampires, meant banging on the headboard and very loud sex noises through the walls. Nice for a guy who had lost the love of his life.

My life could be so different to what it is now, a drunken mess. I could be married to Claire with our daughter. But that's gone, they both are. And I'm probably never going to see them again. I could have been part of a family; instead I'm just a third wheel, living with a happy vampire couple.

_Flashback_

_17 years ago..._

_Claire has been in labour for hours now, she's been screaming and crying all at the same time. I've been there with her for the whole time, she says she's okay, but I can tell she's in so much pain._

_"Okay Claire, I need you to push..." says the midwife._

_"I can't do it, it hurts so bad," wails Claire, tears streaming down her face, whilst gripping onto my hand and burying her head into my chest. I wrap my arm around her and kiss her forehead._

_"Come on Claire, you can do this. Do it for Carrie," I murmur into her ear._

_She lifts her head so her eyes meet mine; she looked scared, vulnerable, reminding me of when I first met her. Covered in bruises and trying to put on a brave face. She slowly nods, and gave me a brave smile despite the pain._

_After some more screaming, and some more crying, we finally had our daughter. _

_The nurse brought her over, wrapped in a blanket. Claire reached out her arms eagerly wanting to hold our daughter. It felt so weird saying that, our daughter, but I guess I was going to have to get used to it. Claire sighed in relief. I peered over her shoulder. My daughter. She was beautiful. I choked up. Her eyes were open; she had beautiful eyes, beautiful green eyes, and the type of eyes you didn't forget. One of her hands was wrapped around Claire's finger. I leant down, my heart racing at the sight at of my beautiful daughter. I rested my head against Claire's shoulder, one of my arms wrapping around her waist, and my other hand touched my daughter's hand. Her tiny hand slowly opened up, and held my finger tightly. God, she was so tiny._

_"She's beautiful," Claire whispered so quietly, I could barely hear her._

_"She's ours," I whispered back, trying to keep my voice low, so I wouldn't scare our baby._

_She looked at me and smiled. Claire was everything to me, she made me who I am today, without her I would still be Frank Collins's kid, the kid who's family was ripped apart by vampires, the kid who was a slacker, and to some extent I guess that was still true, but I defiantly wasn't the same person, Claire, she changed me. She made me a better person, but not only that, but I _wanted _to change for, to be what she deserved. She's given me everything, and now a family, a daughter._

_"I love you Claire Collins," I say looking into her beautiful brown eyes._

_She smiled, and replied "I love you too," and she kissed me. And it was the best kiss ever. A kiss full of promises, hope and happiness. We broke apart, and she slide over on the bed, making room for me, I sat next to her and she carefully handed me our daughter. Holding your daughter in your arms for the first time, was an experience I could never forget, I could feel her tiny heartbeat and her breathing slow and steady. Claire lent her head against my shoulder and I never remember ever being so happy in my life._

Back to the present

I blink a couple of times, coming back to reality. I won't ever forget that moment, but it was gone.

"Dude, get a grip," Michael says, nudging my leg, bringing me back from memory lane.

"Seriously, why the fuck are we even here?" I snapped. I was always pissed off when I thought of Carrie and Claire, it just reminded me of how shit my life is now, and reminds me of what I could have had.

"I don't know, but it must have been important. I mean Amelie, doesn't just call people for a chit chat or a cup of tea," Eve says. Eve changed over the years; she's no longer Goth for a start, thank goodness, and she's a vampire. It was the only way her and Michael could be together, without her ageing and Mickey still looking 18.

"Ugh," I muttered and then silently man bitched about bloodsuckers. Not that all bloodsuckers were bad, Claire taught me that, but they were just very...well, vampire...

"Well, they're both in the building," Jesse says walking into the room; she was on the phone, probably talking to Amelie. "Uh-huh, she should be here soon," Jesse flashes me a grin, as she walks past where we were sitting. I didn't smile back. I wasn't in the mood for banter; I just wanted to get the hell home. She walked though another door across the room, as soon as she walked in here.

The door opened again, and I turned to see who it was. The door closed behind her. I could recognise her anywhere.

Claire.

**So, do you guys like it? Please review and tell me what you think :)**


	2. Unexpected Events

Chapter 2

**Shane's POV**

I would have recognised her anywhere. Claire. My heart raced at the sight of her. I felt like there were fireworks going off in my chest. I wanted her. I missed her.

At first she looked around confused, and then her eyes met mine. I don't know what she thought, but she obviously recognised me, as her chocolate brown eyes grew wide and became alarmed. She quickly took a seat on the other side of the door. As far as possible from me. She had changed over the last 13 years, heck, I wasn't even sure she was the same person. She had grown her dark brown hair, so it reached mid way past her back, with golden highlights from the bottom of her hair, going upwards. Her sense of style changed too, she wore black tight skinny jeans, heels that made her look nearly six feet and a white blazer. She was beautiful. But she wouldn't even look at me. I leant past Eve trying to get her attention, who was trying to subtly get Claire's attention, which involved loudly whispering her name and making giant hand gestures. But she was ignoring her. I didn't blame her, but I was right, Claire just wouldn't listen. She wouldn't believe anyone.

**Claire's POV**

I can't believe I was back in Morganville. I left town 13 years ago, for a _reason, _and a pretty damn good reason too. I climbed up the stairs that led up to Amelie's office; this must be a pretty damn good reason to drag me all the way from New York, where I'd been living since I left Morganville. Maybe Myrnin had broken something, and I was the only person I could fix it?

I opened the door at the end of the hallway and stepped through. _Shane. _I would know him anywhere. He looked... rough... stubble covered his jaw and his hair looked like he'd been running his hands through it. He looked... hot... Shit, I'm not going to be falling for my ex husband, not after what happened. His eyes met mine, and his eyes lit up with reorganisation. I quickly walked to the row of chairs vertically opposite them on the other side of the room. I bent down my head, so my hair covered my face, like a shield from Shane; it also prevented me from sneaking glances at him. I ignored Eve's loud whispering of my name, and got my phone out of my bag and began scrolling through it.

I can't believe Amelie would ambush me like this! How could she? I have every reason not to see Shane, Eve or Michael, and yet she makes me wait in the same room as them? I made it very clear when I left Morganville I wanted nothing to do with them anymore. But I missed Shane. God, I think I still love him. Maybe I never even stopped loving him? But I can't forgive him, he didn't believe me, he didn't believe me about her, after _everything _we'd been through.

_Flashback_

_"Shane, can you get me that bottle over there?" I said sitting on the couch, holding Carrie in my arms._

_"This one?" he says, gesturing to the milk bottle._

_"Yup," I say nodding._

_Me and Shane brought Carrie home a couple of months ago, she was getting quite big now, and was now reaching her hands out, silently asking to be held when me and Shane went near her, which was _very _adorable._

_He handed me the bottle, and Carrie eagerly started drinking her milk. I smiled at her. Shane sat down next to me, putting his arm around me shoulders and smiled at Carrie, who looked up at us with her big green eyes._

_"I didn't know life could be this perfect," says Shane, murmuring, holding Carrie's hand._

_I chuckled, "Wait until she gets a bit older, she's going to be running a riot."_

_Shane laughed, and then grew serious, "I never thought I could have this, any of this. A beautiful wife, and gorgeous daughter, I never thought I would have any of this Claire, and that's all because of you. You've given me everything, and I love you for that, on top of everything else..." his voice trailed off._

_I looked up at him and smiled, "Shane, you deserve this, all of this. And I love you too."_

_He smiled at me, and then looked down at Carrie, who had gone to sleep in my arms. "Well, I think you should put Carrie here to bed, and maybe I could show you exactly how grateful I am," he says murmuring into my ear before lightly licking my ear._

_I squealed, and then quietened down remembering I had my sleeping daughter in my arms, "Maybe you should..."_

_Once we put Carrie in her cot, Shane led me to our room, and showed me exactly how much he was grateful._

_A couple hours later, we remerged from our room, exhausted and slightly out of breath. After checking on Carrie, to see that she was still sleeping, we went downstairs and cuddled up on the couch and watched a bit of TV. We must of eventually fallen asleep, as when I opened my eyes I saw that the light sky outside was replaced my darkness. I was still cuddled up with Shane on the couch, and tried to get up without waking him up. It didn't work, as when I tried to lift his arm off me, his eyes shot open, suddenly alert._

_"Sorry, I didn't want to wake you," I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes._

_He yawned, and said "Shouldn't be Carrie be awake by now?"_

_I frowned, normally she would cry so loudly when she woke up, that she woke up both me and Shane. Weird. She must be really tired. Shane went upstairs to check on her, as I went to the kitchen to warm up her bottle._

_"CLAIRE!" I heard Shane shout from upstairs. "CLAIRE, YOU NEED TO COME HERE NOW!"_

_I stopped mixing baby formula into water, and ran up the stairs as fast as I could. Shane didn't normally shout, something must be wrong._

_I stopped outside of Carrie's door. Shane was leaning over her cot. He was shaking, and he had began crying. Shane never cried._

_"Claire... Ca- Carr-" he whispered, voice shaking. _

_I walked up to the cot, clutching the railings of the cot._

_I peered over to see my baby._

_She wasn't breathing._

_Her body was still._

_I touched her hand with my finger._

_She was stone cold._

_The baby in the cot was dead._

Back to the present

I snapped out of my memories and held back the tears that threatened to spill over my eyes. I lifted my head up, and looked around the room. Shane was still sitting in between Eve and Michael. He was staring ahead, looking lost. Michael looked over at me, and smiled; I smiled back and dropped my head back and returned to my memories.

**Guessing you're all hating me? Sorry! But all will be explained in the next chapter, which I shall upload tomorrow, so I'm not being evil and making you all wait. Can anyone guess my (hopefully) amazing plot twist? Please review! And thank you for the reviews and follows, I appreciate it! :)**


	3. Goodbyes

Chapter 3

**Shane's POV**

I glanced over at Claire. She had her phone in her hands, and was staring into it, but I felt like she wasn't concentrating on whatever was on the screen. Maybe she was thinking about me? Maybe she was thinking about Carrie? Or maybe she was thinking about her new life, maybe she had a boyfriend, heck maybe she was even married with kids? I peered over Eve, to see whether I could see the sparkling of a wedding ring on her finger. I couldn't see anything, but I wasn't sure.

I slumped back into my chair, and stared upwards. I wanted to get the hell out of here. But at the same time I was curious as to what Amelie wanted. It involved me, Michael, Eve and Claire, which must be important if she dragged Claire from out of Morganville. Especially after Claire swore never to come back. Or see me ever again.

**Claire's POV**

I was trying hard not to let tears fall from my eyes. I stared hard into my phone, concentrating on not thinking about my baby. But I couldn't stop my mind going back.

_Flashback_

_I stared at the dead baby in the cot._

_"Claire..." Shane said taking my hand, trying to pull me away from cot._

_"That's not her," I said._

_"What?..." Shane asked puzzled._

_I turned around to face him, "That's not her Shane. That's not my baby."_

_I said it simply, with no space left for argument in my voice. Shane stared at me in disbelief, tears silently falling down his face._

_He held me by my arms, and said, "Claire, I know this is hard, but, you have to admit it." He paused before continued. "She's gone Claire. She's dead."_

_I shook my head, "that's not her Shane, that's not our baby dead in the fucking cot Shane," by this point I was shouting._

_I didn't know how. But I knew that wasn't my baby._

_Shane let go of me, and just stared at me._

_"If it's not her Claire, who is that?" he was shouting too. He was shaking all over, and had wiped the tears of his face._

_"It's not her Shane, I know that. I don't know how. But I just do and I'm asking you to trust me," I said, my voice breaking into a whisper. _

_He just stared at me and shook his head. He silently left the room and went down stairs._

_I looked behind me at the dead baby in the cot. I breathed in and felt something wet fall down my face. I wiped the tears away. That wasn't my baby. That wasn't Carrie. I don't know how I knew, I just did, and the fact that Shane didn't believe me after everything we'd been through, I couldn't describe it. All that trust, promises, gone. Gone, just because he didn't believe me. I knew it was a lot to ask, but the look in his eyes, just showed that he thought I was crazy. But that wasn't Carrie. I just knew it wasn't._

Back to the present

**Shane's POV**

I sighed, and ran my hands through my hair. I remembered the moment where it all went wrong with me and Claire.

_Flashback_

_I had gone downstairs and sat on the couch. A couple of hours ago, on this very spot I was the happiest man alive. But all of that was gone now._

_I had phoned the hospital and told them what had happened. They said they'd bring someone over to take the body away. God, that hurt to say. Carrie was in my arms this morning, she was starting to smile when I picked her up. It was only this morning when I'd fed her, in the kitchen, and now, now she was gone. I wiped the tears falling down my face._

_Claire came and sat down on the couch opposite me. I didn't respond. I could feel her looking at me._

_"It's not her Shane," I heard her whisper._

_I couldn't deal with this. My baby girl was dead upstairs, and Claire wasn't making it any easier to deal with this._

_"Then who is it Claire?" I asked her, my voice cold. I looked up at her, my hands on my knees and my head slightly bent. She was staring at me, she had tear stains on her face, but her voice was steady. "If that's not Carrie, then who the fuck is that, dead, upstairs?" I was standing up now and I was shouting._

_"I don't know Shane," her voice was steady, as she looked up at me. "But I need you to believe me. After everything we've been though, I just need you to believe me."_

_I didn't know where she was getting this. I knew it was a mind fuck, but she needed to face reality, maybe she didn't want to believe it, and she wanted to hold onto some made up fantasy that, that wasn't Carrie, and Carrie was somewhere else, and that this was all a bad dream or someone playing a stupid prank on us, that they thought would be funny._

_I sat back down, shaking my head, "No Claire, Carrie's dead. Our baby's gone."_

**_Claire's POV_**

_He thought I was crazy or something. I stared at my husband. Head bent and hands clenched on his knees. The tears fell silently down my face._

_There was a knock on the door. Shane didn't look up, so I went to answer it._

_"CLAIRE BEAR!" I heard as I opened the door. Eve stood there with Michael on the door step, Eve was clutching a pink present bag._

_"I saw the _cutest _little shoes for Carrie! Look!" she says as she begins opening the bag._

_The sound of Carrie's name has me in tears. Eve stopped digging in the bag, and she and Michael stare at me._

_"Claire?" I heard Michael asked, as he pulls me in for a hug, "Claire, what's wrong?"_

_By this point Shane was standing at the doorway of the living room, just staring._

_"Shane," Eve asked, her cheery tone she used about shoes was gone, her voice was serious. "Shane, what's happened?"_

_Shane didn't answer and I didn't want to say what appeared to have happened because it wasn't true._

_"Er... Does Shane Collins live here?" said a new voice from the doorway. _

_Eve moved out of the front door way to reveal a man in ambulance uniform standing there._

_"She's upstairs. Just take her. Second room on the left," Shane answered, no emotion in his voice._

_The ambulance man nodded and gestured at the woman behind him to follow him, who was carrying a stretcher._

_Shane went back into the living room, Michael pulled me across with him, with Eve following behind. We sat in silence on the couch._

_"What happened?" Eve asked, after a minute of silence._

_"She's dead Eve. _Dead. _I just found her like that," Shane answered._

_Silence followed after that._

_The ambulance people where climbing down the stairs now, holding a stretcher between them._

_I didn't look at them._

_"It's not her," I said after they had gone, and Shane had sat back down, after closing the door for them. "Carrie's not dead."_

_Shane's fist slammed into the wall. "Jesus fuck Claire. She's dead. Admit it. Our baby's fucking dead," Shane was screaming now._

_I got up from the sofa and said, "She's not dead, that's not her, and if you refuse to believe me, then maybe we shouldn't be together."_

_"Claire, I know this is hard to get your head around, but Carrie's gone honey, she's not coming back," Eve's voice was soft, but she looked at me like I was crazy. Michael's eyes were the same._

_I stared at them in disbelief._

_"THAT'S NOT MY BABY!" I screamed, "She's not dead, I just know it."_

_They all stared at me. I shook my head angrily. "If none of you believe me, then maybe I should go."_

_I turned around, walked up the stairs. No one followed behind. I began putting all my clothes and belongings into my suitcase; I walked into Carrie's room and looked around. She was only here for a while, but she was a big part of my life. I picked up the small pink stuffed toy elephant on the dresser. She loves that toy. Loved. I clenched the toy elephant in my hand, zipped up my suitcases and dragged it down the stairs._

_I heard hushed whispers behind the closed living room door._

_"Hey, this is hard for both of you, Claire just hasn't come to terms with it yet," Eve snapped._

_"Dude, come on, she just needs time," said Michael._

_Great, even my best friends didn't believe me. They thought I was a crazy, delusional mother who had just lost her daughter._

_Shane walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him._

_He stared me._

_"You're going" he asked, though it didn't sound like a question. He sounded lost._

_"I'm sorry, but... you don't believe me, and I can't deal with that."_

_He stared at me. I walked towards him and slipped off the wedding ring that I never took off. I took his hand, and placed the wedding ring in it._

_"I'm sorry Shane," I whispered. He stared at me, eyes with no emotion. "You won't ever see me again, bye." And with that, I grabbed my suitcase and walked out of the door._

**So... Do you guys believe Claire, or has she just lost the plot? Review and tell me what you think is going to happen! Thanks for reading, and I might put up the next chapter tonight! **


	4. Disguises Hide Identity

Chapter 4

**Claire's POV**

I guess, everyone still thinks I'm crazy or I haven't gotten over it, but that's not it. That wasn't Carrie dead in the cot, it just wasn't.

I sighed and looked up, my neck hurt from the all the bending. I looked around to see Shane staring at me. I quickly looked away.

I remembered the last time I was at the Founders office...

_Flashback_

_"Amelie?" I asked knocking on the door._

_"Come in," said Amelie, in her ice queen voice._

_I slowly opened the door, and she gestured me to take a seat, without looking up at whatever she was writing._

_"What do you want Claire?" Amelie asked as I sat down._

_I took a deep breath before continuing, "I want to leave. I want to leave Morganville."_

_She looked up, one perfectly sculpted eyebrow rose, "I'm afraid I can't do that Claire. You are a main part of Morganville, and the town needs you to function," she replied before going back to her paperwork._

_"No, you don't understand..." I said, lost for words. I took another breath. "Carrie... Carrie... she's dead..." _

_Amelie stopped writing. She put her pen down and looked back up; surprise and remorse filled her face. Amelie cdidn't look like she was expecting that as a response. _

_"I'm sorry to hear that Claire. I assume Shane will be leaving with you?" she questioned._

_"No. Um... we couldn't see eye to eye on something," I said looking down at my hands._

_Amelie raised her eyebrows, but didn't comment._

_"Well, I guess I have no choice then. I give you permission to leave Morganville."_

_"Thank you," I said smiling, getting up and opening the door._

_"Morganville will miss you greatly Claire."_

_I didn't answer. I closed the door behind me, got in my car and drove out of Morganville._

Back to the present

My memories stayed intact since I left Morganville, I hadn't forgotten a moment since I left. In a way I'm both happy and angry I have my memories. I won't forget my beautiful daughter, I won't forget my best friends, I won't forget all the friends and memories I made here, and, I won't forget Shane. But I have to live with the pain of losing my daughter and everything else that has happened tonight. I've built a new life in New York, I've got an apartment in Manhattan and I work in a fashion house. I know right, big step from the science nerd.

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME! WHO THE ACTUAL FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? GET THE FUCK OFF ME YOU STUPID BLOODSUCKER! DON'T YOU KNOW WHO FUCK I AM? HARRY'S GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!"

I looked up to see in what God's name was that annoying high pitched screaming. A pale, well built vampire with black messy hair, dressed in black, with a leather jacket was dragging a girl who was screaming her lungs off, her long hair whipping all over the place.

"YOU STUPID FUCKING BLOODSUCKER!" she screamed, as he threw her roughly, on the row of chairs opposite me.

We all stared at her. She looked about 20; she was wearing heels taller than mine, a short, tight, low cut black dress with buckles on the side that showed both her boobs and her long legs. She had large blue eyes and a giant nest full of blonde hair. Human.

She was glaring at the vampire.

"You're going to fucking pay for that. You know that?" she hissed in a menacing tone at the vampire.

The vampire didn't look like he particularly cared or was scared, and was now leaning against the wall watching her. She glared at him and settled into the chair.

I sighed. I could be in New York right now, instead I was in Morganville. With my ex husband in the same room, and all I could think about was by dead baby, who everyone thought was dead. Asides from me.

**Shane's POV**

I really hope Amelie didn't drag me all the way across town to endure the screams of a stupid teenage girl. She stopped glaring at him now, and they were just starting at each other now. He silently nodded at her, and she nodded back.

All of a sudden the doors busted open to reveal two of Amelie's vampire guards dragging, between them a big, well built vampire, twice the vamp who brought the girl in, with brown hair. His eyes immediately searched around the room, and they settled on the girl.

"HARRY!" the girl screeched, as soon as she saw the big vamp, and lunged for him. The vamp with black hair leapt at her with vamp speed, holding her by the waist and restraining her from going to him.

Weird. She was human but she wanted the vampire, who looked like he could kill her, as if he so much as touched her.

The vampire guards tightened their grip around the big vamp, and dragged him over to Amelie's office.

"Stay there, I'll come back for you Alice," he called over his back, before the vamps shut the door. He sounded like he meant it, which was even weirder, considering she was just a human and he looked like a pretty dangerous vampire.

The vampire with black hair let the girl go, and she sat back down, crossing her legs, not making a noise. He leant back against the wall and shrugged off this jacket, handing it over to her. She put it on, nodding a silent thank you at him. It was four sizes too big, but she pushed the sleeves back, so she could get her hands free.

They stayed like that for a while, her sitting on the chair and him staring intently at her. Both not saying anything, just silently staring at each other. There was shouting coming from Amelie's office. The girl shuddered, the vampire came and sat next to her. He put his arm around her shoulders and she leant into him. They remained like that, not moving, both staring at the floor.

Suddenly he sprang apart from her, and went back to leaning against the wall. She jumped, startled at the sudden change, but she leant back into the chair in a more formal position.

Amelie's door blew open, and the big vamp came out.

"HARRY!" she breathed as she ran over to embrace him. The vampire watching her didn't try to stop her. Her voice was choked up with emotion, the guy, Harry, held her at arms length staring at her scared face. "I thought I was going to lose you," she whispered, tears filling up in her eyes. He slowly put his arms around her.

Harry went stiff all of a sudden, as if he got stabbed.

"Bye bye Harry," the girl whispered in his ear, she was still locked in his embrace. She stared into his eyes as he went limp and fell to the floor. She walked over him in her heels and sat back down on the chair.

She staked him. He had a giant silver stake coming out of his heart.

"Well done Clarissa," Amelie came out of her office, nodding in approval at the dead vampire of the floor. "Dispose of him," she instructed to the guards. They dragged the body out.

The girl, Clarissa, smiled, "Well done? Is that all you can say? I just killed the world's most dangerous vampire and all you can say is 'well done'?" Clarissa asked, mockingly raising an eyebrow. Her annoying high pitched voice was gone; she actually had a really nice, clear, normal american accent.

Amelie almost smiled.

"She has a point," said the vampire against the wall, he had a deep voice. "She killed the most notorious vampire in the world."

"Like I said Clarissa, well done," Amelie smiled at her, and returned back to her office before I could protest about why I was here and why she wanted to see me.

The vampire smiled at her, "Well, I thought you were amazing, I couldn't have done that."

She smiled back at him, "Well, you couldn't have done it anyway; I don't think he likes gay sex."

The vampire winced and looked apologetic, "Sorry you had to do that, and they shouldn't have made you do that."

"Yeah that's what you said about the last 4 vampires," and she shuddered.

I stared at her in horror; I looked over at Claire who had the same expression on her face as me.

"It wasn't that bad. Just...bruised..." she said after seeing the sympathetic look on his face.

"Ugh, well at least I don't have to dress and speak like a slut anymore." She said.

She slipped off her shoes, and flipped her head over, unclipping her hair to reveal her blonde hair was a wig and underneath she had light brown hair, with bits of blonde in it. She threw the shoes and the wig onto one of the chairs beside her, making a face. She had contacts in. She didn't have blue eyes. She had green eyes. The type of eyes you didn't forget.

**Claire's POV**

I stared at the girl with wide eyes. She had to sleep with vampires, and she looked like she didn't really have a choice.

"Ugh, at least I don't have to dress and speak like a slut anymore." She said.

She took of her new season Chanel shoes, and tipped her head upside down, to reveal a wig, with light brown hair underneath with natural honey blond highlights in it. She threw the shoes and the wig onto one of the chairs beside her disgusted. She took out her contacts. She didn't have blue eyes. She had green eyes.

_Carrie_

**So Carrie didn't die? See, I'm really not that evil! Was anyone expecting that? Please review and tell me what you thought! The next chapter is also up! :)**


	5. Evil Amelie

Chapter 5

**Amelie's POV**

Clarissa did well. She actually tricked Harrison to believe she truly did love her. The stupid vampire. For a vampire who is older than Charles II, he can be so unbelievably stupid. I chuckled silently to myself. I suppose Clarissa hasn't exactly had a normal life. Not every child get's kidnapped as an infant, and gets moulded into the perfect undercover spy to work for vampires.

_Flashback_

_I picked up the telephone on my desk as Claire walked out of my office._

_"Is the child secure?" _

_"Of course, I have her right here. I did exactly what you asked of me."_

_"Good. And you replaced her with the dead child?"_

_"Yes. They won't know the difference."_

_"I hope not, otherwise that would be a problem we couldn't afford."_

_"I assure you Amelie they won't know the difference."_

_"Well, the mother of the child has just been in my office asking for permission to leave the town's border."_

_"What did you tell her?"_

_"I gave her permission. She won't be returning."_

_"Well at least that's one less thing to worry about."_

_"Yes. Call me as soon as Erik gets here."_

_"Of course."_

_"Goodbye Oliver." I say as I put the phone down._

_I know I've done something unforgivable, but we can use the child to our advantage. An advantage we can't afford to lose. _

**Evil Amelie! Thanks for reading and if you have any thoughts, suggestions or opinions please review :)  
**


	6. Past Lives

**Quick AN: I uploaded 2 chapters yesterday, instead of one, so make sure you have read CHAPTER 4 before you read this one, because CHAPTER 4 is a good one, with some important information... **

**Also this chapter might be a little disturbing to some people, so prepare yourself...**

Chapter 6

**Shane's POV**

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Claire was right all along, and I hadn't believed her. God, I felt like such an idiot. I stared at my daughter now; she was beautiful, she laughing with the vamp against the wall, who was smiling back at her. For some reason I wanted to beat the shit out of him.

"Ugh. I feel disgusting. I'm going to get changed," Carrie said getting up. She hugged the vamp before she left. Now I really wanted to go beat him up, but I knew Eve and Michael would pin me up against the wall before I even got a chance to stand up.

He followed her soon after.

That's when I exploded. I bolted out of my chair.

"That's my fucking daughter. The daughter I thought was dead and she was standing right fucking in front of me. I buried her for God's sake."

Claire looked over at me, but didn't say anything.

"Shane honey, that can't be Carrie. Carrie's gone," said Eve, comfortingly as possible, trying to pull me down back into my chair.

"It's her Eve! I know it's her!" I snapped back at her.

I stared at Claire, who was looking directly at me, "Claire... You believe me right?..." I said, voice choking in between.

She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrows, "I don't know Shane. Wasn't it you who said she was dead. Like you said, you did _bury_ her. And it was you, who said she was dead in the first place?" Claire said in a mocking tone.

But as I stared into her eyes, she nodded slightly, as to say I believe you. I sank back down into my chair, and replayed in my head what I had just seen.

**Clarissa's POV**

"Ugh. I feel disgusting. I'm going to get changed," I said getting up and hugging Finn before I left. I could feel him watching me as I walked off.

Well, that was... eventful... I'd finally got rid of Harrison and about time too. God, he was horrible. I remember the first time I'd met him. It was all planned out, vampires everywhere, telling me what to do, and what to say...

_Flashback_

_I climbed on top of the bar; I heard cheers and wolf whistles as I went up. But I wasn't here to entertain. My heels clicking as I walked along the bar. The lights were bright, and I was already covered in sweat from the heat, sliding down poles and lack of space._

_I locked eyes with my target, who was sitting with a drink in his hand at the bar. He was sitting alone, prefect, easy to get his undivided attention. _

_I smiled over at him, making it slow and sexy. His eyes quickly went over me, mentally undressing me. I fought back a shudder. There wasn't much to undress anyway. My boobs were practically popping out of this lace corset and it barely covered my ass. The fishnets didn't hide much either._

_He smirked over at me, but went back to his drink. I frowned. Normally I had them all over me as soon as they stared at me. I walked down towards him, and sat bent right in front of him, my heels being the only thing that touched the bar. He looked up. I smiled at him._

_"Want some company?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I had put on this annoying slutty voice, which made me sound like a stripper. Well, I guess I was so..._

_"Well, that depends on your idea of company," he said, leaning back on his stool, making room for me to sit on his lap. I smiled and took the unwanted invitation, wrapping my legs around the back of the stool, so our bodies were pressed tightly against each other._

_His hands started to slide up my legs, until he reached in between them._

Back to the present

I shuddered at the memory. It made me feel disgusting, having people's hands touch me in placed which I didn't want them to touch. The sex was worse. The worst part was I had no choice; I had to let them to things to me, and I had to pretend I loved every moment of it. It made me feel sick, both and the time, and now.

Long story short, I let Harrison bang me right there on the bar. Corset off, fishnets ripped, but he made me keep the heels on. He was groping me in multiple places simultaneously. Everyone saw.

I pulled on the pink jumper over the vest top, with black leggings. I felt much better, more covered up. But I had to do a lot worse than Harrison, it gave me nightmares sometimes. But the fact that I got the honour of staking them afterwards gave me satisfaction. Kinda like compensation, but, it wasn't worth letting them do what they wanted with me.

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in," I answered. The door opened to reveal Finn standing there.

"Hey," I said smiling at him.

I had known Finn my whole life, and he had seen everything I had to do, he was like my best friend. He was the one who calmed me down after the nightmares. He was the one who let me sob into his chest after all the horrible things I had to do. He was there for me and I could trust him, which was weird considering he was a bloodsucker and all.

"Hey, Amelie wants to see you. It's important," he said at the doorway of the room.

I frowned, pulling my hair into a fish plait, "What? She wants to congratulate me with a gold star?" I said sarcastically.

Finn smiled at me, but a sad one, "Funny. But it's important; you've been waiting for this."

I frowned, securing my plait with a hair band. I couldn't think of anything. I followed Finn out of the room, my bare feet padding along the soft carpet. After climbing up and down some stairs, he led me to Amelie's office. The blonde vamp with the black haired vamp sat together on the chairs outside of her office. He guy with the brown hair and the woman wearing this season's Gucci were gone. I smiled at them as I walked past, they stared curiously at me. Must have never seen a human stake a vampire before.

Finn opened Ice Queen's office door and we stepped inside. The man and the woman were sat at the chairs at her desk, with her majesty herself behind it. The both looked severely pissed off, but the creases in their faces cleared as I walked in.

I walked into the room, taking a seat on the leather couch behind them. Finn came and stood behind me. The man and the woman both stared at me as I did so. I looked down, feeling nervous and started picking at my fingernails.

Amelie got to the point, "Clarissa," she paused, "Carrie..."

Who the fuck was Carrie?

I looked up curious, as to what she was going to say. It didn't sound like she was going to give me the gold star I's been hoping for.

"Carrie, these are your parents."

I froze. My attention focused on the couple sitting at her desk. They stared back at me.

They were my Mom and Dad.

**Quick look at what Clarissa/Carrie had to, sorry, if it was disturbing or anything... But turns out Claire and Shane hadn't lost their baby girl! Please review and tell me what you thought! Can anyone guess what's goint to happen next? :)**


	7. Reunited and False Love

Chapter 7

**Shane's POV**

I stared at her, as shock and then confusion crossed over her face. She looked at Amelie and then to me and Claire. She looked back at Amelie.

"Who the_ fuck_ is Carrie?" she asked.

"Cla- "Amelie began.

"I do not need a lecture on swearing right now. Who's Carrie?" Carrie snapped.

Amelie sighed, "She's you..."

**"**But my name's Clarissa..." said Carrie sounding confused, she frowned and looked up at the vampire behind her, as if he had the answers to all her questions. She looked back Amelie.

Amelie looked uncomfortable, as if she didn't know how to continue. She stared at the vampire behind Carrie before continuing, "You were going to become a different person, so I felt as if a new name might be better suited," she said.

"So, Clarissa is like my name when I go have sex with vampires and then kill them after?" Carrie asked.

I felt my blood boil. She said it so casually, like she didn't mind doing it, like it was something she did on a normal basis. All those things she did, that was horrible enough to happen to anyone, but my own daughter? I didn't know how to feel about that. I felt Claire's hand pat my knee, as if she was to say she knew what I was feeling, or was to stop me from going on an angry rampage.

"No. I named you Clarissa, after you came to us- "

Claire stopped her before she could say anymore.

"_Came to you? _I'm sorry, you actually have the_ audacity _to say that, after you took _my _baby, and replaced her with a _dead _baby. No one believed me when I said that it wasn't my baby dead in that cot. _No one. _Not even _Shane._" Her voice broke as she said my name. "Then you _kidnapped _her, and trained her to do your dirty work for you..." By this point Claire was in tears, and she quickly walked out the room. The vampire behind Carrie followed her out.

The room was silent. Nobody said a word.

"You kidnapped me?" asked Carrie from behind me, her voice quiet, eyes wide and tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

I really wanted to go give her a hug. Tell her everything's going to be okay and that Daddy's here to protect her from the evil vampires. But I stayed glued to my seat.

"I'm sorry Cl-, Carrie. You were an opportunity that we couldn't miss. An advantage we had to take, and you've helped not only Morganville, but you've helped the world. You've gotten rid of some of the most oldest, dangero-"

"Okay I get the picture," said Carrie, stopping her mid sentence. "So what's going to happen now?"

"Well, you don't have to do anything else for us. You've helped us a great deal, and it's time for you to go," explained Amelie.

Carrie sat suddenly upright from her slumped position on the sofa, as if she had an electric current passed though her, "That's it? You're letting me go?" I was surprised, eager, as if she couldn't wait to go.

"Yes... I'll leave you two to talk. I'll see if Claire's calmed down and I'll send her in," said Amelie leaving the room, closing the door behind her. Carrie sat of the sofa hugging her legs and staring at me.

Just me and my daughter. The daughter who I thought was dead for 17 years. The daughter who I spent 17 years drunk over, just to numb the pain of losing her.

I got up from the chair at Amelie's desk, and sat on the leather couch opposite her.

"Hey," I said, not sure what to say to her. God, I didn't even know what to say to my own daughter, I would be such a shit dad.

She smiled, "Hey." After a moment's silence, she laughed, a small musical laugh. "Well, this is awkward."

I chucked, "So..." I struggled to think of a conversation starter, without wanting to talk about vampires or sleeping with them, "Do you live in Texas?"

She looked surprised, as if she wasn't expecting that as a question, "I move around a lot, I lived in Dallas as a kid, but I've been moving around since I was 12. I've stayed in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, Rome, Venice, Moscow, Shanghai... and a couple of other places. I've never stayed in one place for more than 6 months though."

"Wow..." I said, I wasn't expecting that as an answer. "So I'm guessing you can speak more than one language then?"

"Yeah, I can speak Chinese, Mandarin, Italian, French, Russian and I can put loads of accents, so I can sound British or whatever," she said shrugging.

"That's a lot," I said.

"I guess," she said nodding. She smiled "But it comes in useful when you prank call people. They don't know it's you, when you pretend to be Irish," she laughed.

I smiled at her. Claire opened the door, and came in. Her eyes immediately went to Carrie, Carrie looked back at her.

"Um... Amelie says we can go..." she said to me, but eyes not leaving Carrie.

Amelie came in behind her, "Carrie you can return home with Shane and Claire. Finn will be outside to say goodbye," and disappeared behind Claire.

Claire's eyes still hadn't left Carrie.

"Hey," said Carrie. She looked nervous.

"Hi," said Claire. "Um, I'm guessing you're coming with us then..."

"Yeah, I guess I am..." said Carrie.

I got up, Carrie followed me and we all walked out together. Like a little family.

**Finn's POV**

I waited outside their car with Carrie's stuff waiting for her to come outside. She deserved to be happy, after every night of her crying and the nightmares, she needed a normal life. I don't see why she even had to do it; they could have got some other vampire to do all the stuff she did. A vampire who even wanted to do that.

I stood up straight after seeing her with her parents and the two vampires with them. She walked quicker towards me when she saw me. I opened my arms for a hug, when she came close enough.

"You deserve this, yeah? You deserve to be happy," I said looking into her eyes.

"You're not coming with me, are you?" she asked.

I shook my head, "A life without any vamps involved is a pretty good one, you're better off without me."

I watched her eyed grow worried, "You're not bad though. I want you."

I knew she didn't mean more than friends, "I won't be far. I'll see you soon. "I kissed her forehead, before disappearing vamp speed back into the Founders Building.

I slowed down once I got back inside I walked back to my room, running my hands though my hair. Fuck, I missed her already. I sighed. Nothing was ever going to happen between me and Clarissa, well, Carrie now. She probably hated the shit out of us, and I didn't blame her.

Just as I got to my room, I heard a cough behind me, getting my attention. I turned around to see Jesse standing leaning against the wall. She smiled.

"Miss me? I know two centuries is a long time but..."

"Lady Jane Grey, an honour," I said.

"A bigger one now," she said, as she pressed herself against me.

My lips were on her before she could get another word in. I pushed her against the wall, my hands ripping the material on her dress. She fiddled with the door knob of my room, unlocking it, we both stepped inside, and she shut the door behind her, as I pushed her onto the bed.

**Sorry for not updating :( I'm on work experience, and it's actually really tiring. And I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit boring, the next chapter should be better. But please review and tell me what you think! What do you guys think about Carrie and Finn? Finn's the vampire that was with Carrie, if I hadn't made that clear.**


	8. Getting To Know You

Chapter 8

**Carrie's POV**

"So what's Morganville like?" I said trying to break the silence in the car.

Michael and Eve had taken the car they'd come in, and Claire, Shane and me were in the car that Claire came in. We were going to the Glass House.

"It's just any small town in Texas to be honest... Might have changed a bit, but I guess it's just an ordinary town," said Claire, who was driving, eyes on the road.

"Oh okay..." my voice trailing off, I didn't know what else to say.

The rest of the car ride was silent.

**Claire's POV**

"Okay, we're here now," I said unbuckling my seat belt and getting out of my car. Carrie got out and stared up at the Glass House, her mouth dropped, obviously surprised.

I smiled at her reaction, "Big huh?" she nodded without taking her eyes of the house, "that's what I thought when I first got here."

Shane got out of the car, and took out Carrie's stuff from the boot of my car, as Carrie followed me to the front door. I unlocked it and we stepped inside.

"Wow, this place is so... big..." she said looking around, taking everything in.

I smiled at her, and she followed me into the living room. She sat down on the couch, and I sat on the one next to her. She was still taking everything in.

"So, did you live here then?" she asked, looking at me.

"Yeah, I came to Morganville when I was 16. I came here because I was going to the University in Morganville, and I moved here from the dorms, and it kinda went on from there I guess, " I explained smiling at the memories.

"So what do you do now?" Carrie asked.

"I work in New York, at a fashion house," I told her.

"Anyone I might have heard of?" asked Carrie sounding hopeful.

"Well, some of designers I've designed for are Sin-Clare and X&Y."

Her eyes grew wide at the mention on X&Y. "X&Y? Oh my God, seriously?! I love them! They're clothes are so cool!"

I laughed at her. I think we were going to get on well.

**Shane's POV**

Jesus, how many bags could one girl have? And they all weighed a ton. I struggled with the weight of the bags as I walked into the Glass House.

I heard laughing coming from the living room. I left the bags at the bottom of the stairs and walked into the living room. I smiled at the sight of Carrie and Claire laughing together. Carrie looked up as I took a seat on the couch next to Claire, she smiled at me.

"You hungry?" I asked her, sitting down.

"I guess, yeah," she says nodding.

"How's chillie sound?" asked Claire, smiling at me.

"Sounds good," Carrie said, nodding slightly.

"Do you want to get unpacked before dinner then?" I aske er.

"Yeah. Thanks," she says.

"Here, I'll show you your room," I said, getting up and picking up 5 bags simultaneously.

"Er, I can hold one if you like..." said Carrie behind me.

"No, it's fine honey," I replied, leading the way upstairs.

I showed her to Eve's old room. She moved into Michael's room since they got hitched, and she turned it into a spare room. I've been drowning my sorrows in Claire's old room ever since I moved back into the Glass House.

The walls were still painted black, but the bed had clean sheets and there were dressers against the wall with a desk on the other.

"Sorry, about the walls. You can paint them later, if you want," I said putting her bags on the bed and facing her, "so, I'll call you when dinner's ready then..."

"Yeah, okay. Thanks," she said smiling at me.

I smiled back at her. I walked out of the room, closing the door behind me and went downstairs to make dinner.

**Finn's POV**

I could feel my heart racing, my breath coming out in short breaths. Jesse climbed off of me. Laying down on the bed beside me.

"...Well... that...was...eventful..." said Jesse between breaths.

"Very..." I panted.

"Just... like the old... times..." she said.

I chuckled. She was right.

_Flashback_

_It was past midnight and I was walking through the palace chambers, finally going down to the servant's quarters. It was cold, and I missed home, but I had to earn money to send back to mother, especially after father's spending all our money on drink._

_I heard crying coming from behind the door of the royal chambers. I paused, hesitating whether or not to knock. I stood there for moment, eventually I took enough courage to knock on the door, and poke my head through the door._

_"Milady?" I asked. Queen Jane was sitting at the foot of her bed in her night gown, crying. "Milady, are you alright?" I asked alarmed._

_She looked up though her mousy brown hair, which covered her face. She wiped her nose of the sleeve of her night gown._

_"Oh," she sniffled. "I'm sorry. This is most unlike me. I apologise," she says getting up off the floor._

_"Why are you crying?" I ask. I knew I shouldn't delve into the Queen's private affairs. I was told strictly by my betters not to speak to anyone, unless speaking to. I had some right nerve to talk to the queen._

_"Because... because... because I don't want to be Queen!" she cried. I had a sudden urge, to wrap my arms around her and somehow comfort her, but I had taken it too far by just stepping into this room. Her majesty was already married to Guildford Dudley... But where was he when his wife was crying and needed comfort? He was on a trip to the country to ride horses and shoot game._

_"You're majesty, it's quite alright," I said awkwardly, patting her shoulder, hoping that this small gesture would somewhat comfort her or make her feel a slight bit better about her current situation._

_She looked at me, with big blue eyes. "Thank you I'm most grateful," she said, smiling at me slightly._

_"That's quite alright your majesty, if there's anything you need... please don't hesitate to call..." I said, turning to leave._

_"Actually..." she said. Her voice small._

_"Yes," I said turning around._

_She hesitated, before walking towards me. She looked straight at me. "Don't move..." she said. She reached up, so our faces were almost touching. _

_"Please..." she says. _

_I didn't know what to say. I didn't even know what to do. Her lips touched mine, and stayed like that for a while. Not moving, just touching. I moved my lips against hers. My hands touching her, in places where I shouldn't. She led me towards her bed. My hands sliding under her nightgown so I was touching her bare legs..._

Back to the present

I stared at her now. She was asleep on the pillow next to me. Her hair sprawled on the bed sheets. I took a lock of her flaming red hair; she's dyed it since the 1500s.

She was hot, don't get wrong. But nothing was going to happen between us, other than sex. We both knew that. She wasn't what I wanted. But what I wanted, just didn't want me back.

**Who's Finn talking about? Please REVIEW and tell me what you think! :)**


	9. Making Up

Chapter 9

**Shane's POV**

I walked into the kitchen to find Claire sitting on the table with her phone in her hands, texting furiously, she looked up as I entered, and then back at her phone.

"Michael and Eve phoned; they said that they'd stay in a motel or something tonight. I guess they wanted to give us some space with Carrie," she said, not looking up and still texting.

It bothered me; she could be texting anyone right now. Friends, boyfriend... Heck, maybe even a husband. The fact that it wasn't me ripped my heart to shreds, she had moved on, I had gone backwards, I was back where I was when I was 18, only 10 times worse.

I nodded and walked over to the counter, took out some onions and started chopping.

"You want any help?" asked Claire, looking up at me. Her phone was in her hands, and she was turning it around.

"Yeah, there's some meat in the fridge, you wanna start frying?" I said, gesturing to the fridge.

"Yeah sure," she said, getting up from her chair, taking the meat and she walking over to the cooker next to me. Her shoes clicked as she walked. She was standing so close enough to me, that our arms slightly brushed. God, she smelled amazing. Like sweet vanilla. I wanted her, I wanted her right now and I wanted her despite everything that had happened.

"So..." she said, pouring oil into the frying pan.

"How have you been?" I asked her, concentrating hard on chopping.

"Good, you?" she asked, I could feel her eyes on me, but I didn't want the pain of looking at her, seeing how much she changed and put Morganville behind her.

"Yeah, I've been okay," I said.

Silence followed after that. I couldn't take it anymore.

"Claire, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I didn't believe you. I'm sorry I let you go without even so much as a fight... and... and..." I was rambling on at this point. She was staring up at me with her big brown eyes.

"Hey, it's okay," she said. She hesitated at first, but then put her small manicured hand on my arm. "It's okay Shane," her eyes met mine, and she put her arms around me, hugging me close.

I stiffened at her touch, surprised at the sudden gesture. I put my arms around her, holding her close; she was taller with the shoes so she was able to bury her face in the crook of my neck. I could feel her tears on my bare skin. I held her tighter and kissed her hair, burring my face into her hair.

We stayed like that for a while before she gently let go of me, and looked up at me. I took my thumb and wiped the tears from her face.

"Sorry," she murmured, looking down blushing.

"Hey, it's okay," I said taking her small hand in my big one. "I missed you," I said looking down at her.

She looked up at me and smiled, "I thought you'd have moved on by now."

I was surprised; her expectation was so different to reality.

"I never thought of anyone else, even if I was with someone, I still thought of you. I thought about you every day since you've been gone Claire. I'd drink myself to sleep, and I'd still be thinking of you," I said looking into her beautiful eyes and putting my arms lightly around waist.

Her mouth dropped slightly and put her head against my chest. My arms tightened around her.

"I'm never going to let you go again Claire. I promise," I whispered into her ear, and I swore on my life that I'd never break that promise.

**Carrie's POV**

I just finished putting all my clothes into hangers and hanging them inside the wardrobe. I sighed. I don't know how I was supposed to have a normal life now. I was a fang banger and the only qualifications I had were to be a porn star. Great.

There was a knock on my door, "Come in," I answered, turning around.

Claire was at the doorway, smiling at me, "Hey, dinner's ready now."

I smiled back at her and told her I'd be down soon.

I sighed in frustration. Why couldn't I be like her? She was my mom right? So why couldn't I be pretty like her? Even though I'd known her for 5 minutes, I'd already got the impression that she was one of those people that everyone liked. I bet she's ashamed of me, I was just a cheap vampire prostitute who was easily manipulated, and she was a high end New York fashion designer. I was just a worthless piece of shit, she was better off without knowing me. She and Shane were both better off without me. I sighed and fought back tears as I made myself downstairs to the kitchen.

Shane and Claire both smiled at me as I sat down at the kitchen table.

"Here you go," said Shane, handing me a bowl of chilli.

"Thanks," I said, stirring the chilli waiting for them to sit down.

I took an experimental bite and chewed. I never had chilli before, but this was pretty damn good, I tucked in.

"Do you like it?" said Shane smiling, as he watched me eat.

I nodded, "I never had chilli before, but this is pretty good," I said to him.

He looked surprised, but looked rather happy too.

"Oh God, now he's going to be going around thinking he's an amazing cook," said Claire rolling her eyes, but she had a small smile on her face.

"I don't _think _I'm an amazing cook, I _know _I'm an amazing cook!" he said cockily, flicking chilli at her with his spoon.

She squealed and flipped him off, taking a kidney bean out of her hair and throwing it back at him.

I laughed at them and smiled.

"So who was that vampire you were with, what's his name Flick?" asked Shane.

I could hear Claire kick his leg underneath the table. I guess he was being the _'over protective dad'_.

"Finn," I said correcting him. "I guess he's like my best friend," chewing another spoonful of chilli.

"Is he gay?" asked Shane leaning slightly towards me. I choked on chilli, and I heard a sharp kick from underneath the table, followed by Claire and Shane glaring at each other.

"Here," she said handing me a glass of water, still giving Shane daggers.

I gratefully took the water and gulped it down. "Thanks," I said, putting the glass down and took a deep breath.

"Er, I don't know. We're just friends," I say awkwardly.

"So, he's not gay?" interrogated Shane. I could hear Claire kick Shane again, and I could tell he was mentally swearing at her.

"I really don't know... we don't talk about that kinda stuff..." I said suddenly feeling uncomfortable.

"So Carrie," said Claire, trying to change the conversation. "What music are you into?"

"Most types I guess. I like literally anything. But I guess The Killers are my favourite band," I say shrugging taking another bite of the yummy chilli.

I heard Shane's spoon clatter on his bowl. I look up to see him grinning widely, looking rather happy. "Your favourite band is The Killers? Seriously? They're my favourite band!"

The rest of the night went by in a blur. We ended up watching a movie on the couch, me sitting between Claire and Shane eating Ben and Jerry's, my head against Claire's shoulder and Shane's arm around the both of us. I don't remember feeling so happy before.

I yawned at about half twelve, and told them I was going to bed. They both told me to have a good sleep and that I'd see them in the morning. I went to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

**Claire's POV**

I could feel my eyes getting sleepy, I snuggled closer to Shane, and his arms tightened around me. But we weren't close enough.

I sighed, and climbed on top of him so my lips were in his ear, "upstairs," I whispered. I leant back so our eyes met.

He didn't need any more persuading. His hands slid to my thighs and lifted me up, so my legs were wrapped around his waist, my fingers tangled in his hair and Shane's hands gripping my ass. He carried me upstairs like that.

Shane leant his back against the door to open my old room, kicking his leg to close it once we were inside. We fell on top of the bed, still locked in our embrace. I couldn't take it anymore, I kissed him. I kissed him until I didn't have a breath left in me. I kissed him until I made up for the 17 years since I left him.

**Finn's POV**

She was so beautiful. She was breathing steadily, her chest slowly moving up and down. I sighed and laid down beside her, one of my arms behind my head and the other lightly tracing the side of her face. I sighed.

"Hey," she murmured. Her eyes were still closed, but she knew I was next to her.

"How was it?" I murmured, my hand reaching out to stroke her soft hair.

She mumbled something, that sounded like she was back asleep, but she leaned onto me, so her head was on my chest and her arms wrapped around my torso.

I stared down at her for a moment, before wrapping my arms around her and my hands stoking her head.

"I love you Carrie Collins," I whispered.

But she had already gone back to sleep.

**Sorry for not updating! Work experience is taking the little energy and effort out of me, but I'm going to be updating regularly from Friday! So Claire and Shane are finally back together again! Please review and let me know what you think! :)**


	10. The Morning After

Chapter 10

**Carrie's POV**

Ugh. It was too early in the morning. I rolled over so I was face down on the pillow.

I heard a chuckle beside me.

I frowned and propped myself on one elbow. I looked up through my messy bed head to see Finn sitting upright on the bed smiling at me.

I bury my face back into the pillow and pull the covers tighter across me. I heard him chuckle again. I loved hearing him laugh, he rarely laughed when we were with other people, but when it was just us, we could have a laugh, and just be ourselves I guess, which was something we couldn't do around most people. I push the covers down, and turn my face towards him.

"Morning to you too sunshine," he says stroking my hair. I slowly inch towards him.

"You know you didn't have any nightmares last night," he says, still stroking my hair.

That surprised me; I normally had nightmares every night. I would wake up screaming or crying or even both. I lifted my head to look up at him and pushed my hair from my face.

"Really?" I asked, suddenly feeling quizzical.

He nodded, "Yup," he paused before continuing, as if he was questioning whether to tell me something. "Think it's being away from vampires," his voice trailed off, but in a brighter tone added, "see, told you it would be fine!"

He was trying to make me forget about him, but I didn't want to. He was my best friend and I would always want him in my life.

"Doesn't mean I don't want you in my life," I muttered bitterly.

There was a knock on my door before he could respond. Finn quickly got of my bed and began putting his Converse's on, which were strewn across the floor. And then vampire speed he disappeared. Just like that. I frowned, how did he _do_ that?

There was another knock on my door.

I quickly found my purple fluffy bath robe and put it on before answering my door.

Claire was at the door, she smiled as I opened the door, and I squinted at the sudden sunlight. Once my eyes had adjusted I realised she was just wearing an oversized guy's band t-shirt that reached above her knees. And her hair was tousled. Thoroughly. I didn't want to even know. But without the shoes she wasn't that tall, she was only about 5'4, which to be honest was less intimidating.

After seeing the expression on my face, she probably realised what I was thinking.

"It's fine, you don't have to explain anything," I said shaking my head and laughing.

Wow, a mom and dad who loved each other. Happy little family right? It wasn't what I had in mind when I first came to Morganville. And more than I could ever hope for.

But she still blushed, looking down and was clearly embarrassed.

"Um... I just came to see if you were okay, I thought I heard something..."

I blinked. I couldn't let her know that Finn was here, she would freak. And what I learnt about Shane's opinion on boys that weren't gay, he _defiantly _didn't need to know about the heterosexual vampire, who spent the night in my bed.

"Nope, just me," I said a bit too quickly. I hoped she didn't notice.

"Probably just my imagination then," she said, but she didn't sound too sure. "Breakfast is going to be ready soon, bathroom's the one two doors on the left," she said smiling.

I thanked her and closed the door as she went back to her room. I sighed as soon as I heard her door close.

"Well, that was close," said Finn, who suddenly reappeared sitting on the swivel chair at the desk across the room.

"Seriously how do you do that?" I whispered, making sure my voice wasn't too loud.

"Do what?" he whispered back, "and why are we whispering?"

"Just disappear and reappear like that, and because I don't want Claire and Shane know that my vampire best friend who is _not_ gay, spent the night in my bed!"

Finn blinked a few times, and then grinned.

"It's not funny!" I snap.

He tries to hide his smile, but fails miserably, so he comes over and hugs me instead, burying his face in my hair still laughing. I couldn't stay pissed at him any longer and hug him back, laughing.

Finn was the only person that could do that, make me laugh. I didn't need anyone as long as I had Finn.

**Shane's POV**

Claire was asleep, her head resting against the crook of my neck and my arms around her. I had taken my promise seriously, I hadn't let go of her since.

She stirred against me, I could feel her eyelashes brush against my bare skin and her fingers interlock with mine. I turned her over so her back was on the bed and I was hovering over her, our faces brushing.

"Hey," she murmured. But she kissed me before I could reply.

My hands brushed her sides as she moaned into my mouth. Her mouth opened up against mine as I slide my tongue into her mouth. Her hands knotted into my shaggy hair, pressing me closer to her. She wrapped one of her legs around me. One of my hands slid down the front stomach and gripping onto her leg which was wrapped around me, pressing her closer to me. She moaned against me, her finger nails digging into back.

It had gone on like that all night; I guess she was right about missing me.

After a lot of sleepy murmurings and reluctancy to get out of bed. Claire finally got out of my arms, I watched her sit on the edge of the bed, putting her underwear back on and finding one of my t-shirts, and pulling it over her head. My mouth drooled over the sight.

She silently left the room, winking as she closed the door.

I lent back on the bed, breathing out and I put my hands on the back of my head. I would not fuck this up again. It wasn't worth it. A second chance hardly ever comes along, especially for me, I wouldn't let go of this. The chance of being a husband and a dad again sent shivers down my back, and I promised myself I wouldn't let them both go again. Ever.

**Oliver's POV**

William Albert Jonathan Barclay. I had despised the man ever since the first civil war. He was stubborn, arrogant and selfish, and now she was kidnapping children and using them as slaves. Children young as the age of five, were being taken away and used for indescribable things. But he was clever, he might not be old as myself, Jesse or Amelie, but he had supporters, which proved to the problem.

There was only one person who could stop him. One person that would be able to trick him. William had a soft spot for humans, pretty ones especially.

Clarrisa Collins.

**Just as everything was going so well, Oliver had to come along :( **

**REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! **


	11. Welcome to Morganville

Chapter 11

**Carrie's POV**

Eventually I got dressed in skinny jeans, a Jack Wills hooded jacket with a plain black t-shirt underneath and Vans. I did what I needed to do in the bathroom, before going downstairs to the smell of pancakes and the sound of laughter.

Shane was trying to toss a pancake in the air and Claire was telling him he couldn't do it whilst she was mixing pancake batter. The vampire couple in the Founders office last night were leaning against the counter laughing. The blonde vamp, Michael, was standing on a kitchen chair in the middle of the room trying to reach numerous pancakes stuck to the ceiling.

"Dude, I'm telling you it's not coming down," said Michael trying to peel away the pancake stuck to the ceiling using a spatula.

"That's bullshit! I bet you're just trying to blame me on purpose," said Shane, tossing another pancake and catching it, making a sound of triumph.

"And why would I do that?" questioned Michael, scraping pieces of pancake of the ceiling.

"Er... So I get you a new ceiling..?" said Shane shrugging.

"With your salary? I don't think so," scoffed Eve, walking over to the table to pour herself a cup of coffee. She spotted me at the doorway; I was trying not to laugh at the whole pancake on the ceiling situation. She smiled over at me, gesturing me to sit at the table. I walked over and sat down. I could feel everyone's eyes on me; I kept my eyes down, pulling up the sleeves of my hoodie so they were halfway up my hands.

"There's a pancake on the ceiling," I pointed up.

Claire and Eve started laughing and Michael smirked.

"It's supposed to be up there," Shane tried to tell me convincingly.

"Why?" I asked, as Claire put a plate of pancakes in front of me. I smiled graciously at her when she put a jar nutella beside it.

"Because... because... because the ceiling looked hungry," he said, nodding trying to convince me.

"So hungry the ceiling doesn't seem to let go," said Michael, still trying to scrape pancake of the ceiling. We all immediately started laughing.

"See, I told you it was hungry," Shane told me.

I started laughing all over again. I took a forkful of pancake-chocolate-nuttiness; it was just as good as the chilli. When it came to food, Morganville had its perks.

"Have you ever been to Morganville before?" Eve asked me.

I shook my head, "If Amelie wanted to speak to me or anything, she'd come to me. I knew I was born in Morganville, but I'd never been," I explained.

Eve smiled, "Then I suppose a guided tour is in order," she said.

"It's nothing too special," explained Michael. "The University is alright, but the restaurants around here are pretty good."

I _knew _the food here would be good.

We all left after everyone had their pancakes. Michael still hadn't been able to get the pancake off the ceiling.

Morganville seemed pretty cool, it was kinda small and everyone seemed to stick to themselves, which was kinda weird. Michael was right about the food, the burgers and milkshakes were to die for. The town's ability to meet my shopping expectation, didn't quite reach the bar... Long story short, they had a second hand store and a single store that sold the clothes that would be on the bargain racks of regular stores. I guess online shopping was going to be my new favourite thing.

We were sitting in Common Grounds, which was a cute little coffee bar. Michael and Eve had gone off, probably to give Claire, Shane and me some privacy. We were sitting at a small booth next to the window. Claire and Shane were sitting opposite me, with his arm on the back of her chair. They were cute together, not only in appearance but in character too. You could tell he loved her.

I was sipping a caramel latte and gazing out of the window, lost in my own thoughts. Non college students walked around quickly, their heads bent, as if trying to stay out of trouble just by walking. It was...weird. All the other places I've been to have never had anything like this. I guess it was what living in a town full of vampires did to you, made you paranoid and anxious. But not all vampires were bad though! I guess that's rich coming from me, vampires ruined my life. They kidnapped me when I was a baby, until I was eleven I had vampire spy training and up until now I was made to prostitute myself to evil vampires. But not all of them are bad, take Finn for example, he's my best friend and he's one of the nicest, kindest, generous people I knew. He made me laugh, we had endless video game marathons together and he's one of the only people I truly trusted. I loved him to pieces.

"Well look who it is," said a woman's voice.

I looked up to see a woman wearing a low cut top that showed a lot of her cleavage with a pair of shorts that could also be described as lingerie.

"Ah, Monica what a lovely surprise," said Claire, putting on a fake smile.

Monica smiled back at her, well as much as she could, considering the amount of Botox she had injected in her face.

"Well, glad to see you back in town Claire and that you've worked things out with Shane... especially after, what's her name? Cassie?" her mouth turning into a cruel type of smirk.

"Actually Monica, she's sitting right in front of you," said Shane sounded satisfied.

Monica's face again reached its maximum capacity of shock. She looked like a goldfish with her mouth opened like that. Her eyes immediately went to me her eyes assessing me.

"And where was she for the last seventeen years?" she asked.

"She probably heard you lived here and ran away screaming," said Claire smiling.

Monica was just about to make her comeback, when Oliver of all people met my eyes behind the coffee bar. This was unusual; Oliver was a high class vampire. He instructed me on some of my vampire killings, he gestured at me to go speak to him. I quickly excused myself, holding up my coffee mug to get a refill of latte.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him frowning. "And what are you _wearing_? Is that an _earring?_" I asked sounding shocked.

He was wearing a tie dyed t-shirt, looking like he toured around the country on peace tours with hippies on a mini bus.

Oliver chuckled, "It's an act, don't take it seriously," he told me, taking my coffee mug and refilled it.

"Do people even take you seriously in that get up?" I asked him, trying not to laugh.

He sent me a glare silencing me. I immediately shut up as he handed me my coffee.

"There's something I need you to do," he told me seriously.

I tensed up, adrenaline already starting to pump through me.

"Take this and _read_ it," he instructed me, slipping me a USB stick from under his hand. I carefully took it and read the label on it.

"Who's Barclay? Name doesn't ring a bell," I told him.

"You'll find out sooner or later," he says nodding.

"Next please!" that was my queue to go. Whoever Barclay is, wouldn't be for much longer. Not if Clarissa Collins had anything to do with it.

**William** **Albert Jonathan Barclay's POV**

I was bored. I wanted entertainment. I was sat at my desk with my legs propped up on the desk with a glass of whiskey in my hands. There were numerous women sitting on the sofas in the room, some of them not having any dignity left. They could have easily entertained me, but I was bored of them.

"Sir," Charles said knocking on my door. "We have some new arrivals."

"I'll be there soon," I said, sighing as I got up from my chair. I ignored the touches of the women in their underwear as I walked out of the room.

The children were all crying. They always cried. I was getting quite bored of it now.

But it was time for them to see who was in charge. Especially if they were going to be ready for the auction later.

**So what's Carrie going to do? Is she going to give up a chance of a normal life or a life of killing evil vampires?**

**Thanks for reading! Review and let me know what you think! :)**


	12. Missions and Backstabbers

Chapter 12

**Carrie's POV**

I exited the last Word Document, fully understanding Barclay's horrific past and possible psychological reasons of why it has affected his present life. But kidnapping children as slaves? That was... horrendous.

I clicked open a video file entitled _'auction'_. I frowned, what did he like expensive art paintings now? A media file opened up and started playing.

The camera was surrounded by an audience of people, the sound fuzzy with people in conversation. I focused on the surroundings and it was a Renaissance themed room, complete with what looked liked original Michelangelo's. There was a small stage at the front of the room, with a stand and a microphone. The screen focused on a man with salt and pepper hair walking onto the stage and standing behind the microphone, he cleared his throat and tapped the microphone wanting attention. The room quickly went silent.

The man's face broke into a smile. An evil cold smile.

"Thank you, for joining us today ladies and gentlemen. The auction shall shortly begin."

Art painting auctions. Cool. Maybe I would be returning the Mona Lisa back to the Louvre.

A woman dragged a boy who looked about five years old onto the stage. Her grip on the boy looked painfully tight and the kid looked confused and scared. I frowned what would a kid be doing here?

"Item one. Five year old male child. Two foot five. Bidding starts at £2000," The man stated into the microphone.

They were selling children.

"2000 for a _boy_? A female child yes, that would be useful..." a male voice came out from the audience. The room erupted into laughter.

I fought back the bile that rose in my throat. They were selling children as sex slaves.

"Nonsense," said a woman's voice, interrupting the man. "You can do _plenty _with boys alike!" her voice breaking into laughter. She was soon joined by other female laughter.

I was repulsed by what I was watching. The kid was eventually sold for £2500; he looked scared as the woman who brought him in took him away. The man at the microphone noted down the buyer. The woman who'd bought him made a snide remark about whether they came gift wrapped.

I fast forwarded the video, skipping the selling's of other frightened children, and stopping it when a guy with shoulder length dirty blonde hair and wearing a designer suit walked onto the stage.

"Thank you for coming and I hope you enjoy your new buys," he spoke into the microphone and with that he walked off the stage. He had a British accent; he had to be Barclay from the pictures I had just seen. But he wasn't going to stay like that for much longer. Not if I had anything to do with it.

"Carrie," said Eve knocking at my door. "There's someone here to see you... you might want to hurry..."

I frowned, "Who is it?" I asked wondering who'd want to see me.

"It's better if you just come downstairs yourself..." her voice trailing off.

I pushed off my Dr Dre's off my ears and shoved my Mac Book off my lap onto the duvet and followed her downstairs.

There in the living room was Finn, who looked very uncomfortable sitting down on the couch with Shane glowering over him, giving him a 'I-want-to-stake-you-and-watch-you-die-laughing' look.

"So you're sure you're not gay?" Shane asked him.

"Carrie's here!" Eve announced her voice full of brightness, hoping to end this very uncomfortable interrogation.

Finn looked up at me grateful and Shane still looked suspicious. He was still glowering over Finn.

"Shane you might want to let them talk," said Eve, gently trying to pry Shane out of the room.

"No, it's fine Eve. I think I might just stay here..." said Shane taking a seat on the armchair to Finn's right, not taking his eyes off him for a second.

I sighed and sat down next to Finn, ignoring Shane's glares and unhappy expression at my choice of seating. I sat down facing Finn, so the arm rest of the couch rested against my back.

"So, what's up?" I asked Finn. Shane glared at my attempt to make conversation.

"Amelie wants to see you," said Finn, sounding uncomfortable with the daggers Shane was sending him.

"Great, I'll get my keys," said Shane getting up. Finn's eyes were wide and alarmed.

"I think Carrie's old enough to go to see Amelie unaccompanied Shane," said Claire walking into the room. She was wearing glasses, the new French Connection. Nice.

She pushed Shane down and sat on his lap, preventing him from standing up and also preventing the awkward and uncomfortable car journey ahead. He glared at her, but put her arms around her nevertheless.

_'Go'_ she mouthed to me and Finn. Finn threw her a grateful smile and opened up a portal and ran vampire speed into it.

"You've probably scared him off," said Claire sighing.

"Was that necessary?" I asked Shane standing up from the couch, going to stand in front of the portal.

"Which part?" Shane innocently questioned.

"The homosexual part," I replied.

"Just be glad you weren't here for the bit where he asked him if he was a virgin," said Eve walking into the room.

I stared wide eyed at her and then at Shane, who just shrugged.

"Or the bit where he-"

I walked into Amelie's office before I could hear what other creative thing my father asked my non-gay vampire best friend. Finn stood there waiting for me.

"You could have said you liked guys..." I suggested, before spluttering into laughter at seeing his expression.

"Shut up," he said talking my hand and leading me into Amelie's office. I was still laughing.

**Shane's POV**

"I was only asking!" I protested stubbornly.

I didn't see what I did wrong! I was just looking for the welfare of my own daughter.

"Nice one Shane," says Michael, holding out a fist for a fist bump. I ignored him. "Carrie won't ever bring any of her friends home now."

"No, she can bring friends home..." I started to say.

"Just not anyone with a penis that is attracted to females," says Eve finishing my sentence.

"Exactly!" I said triumphantly, happy that Eve understood where I was coming from.

But Eve and Michael burst out laughing and walked into the kitchen.

"She's not going to like you very much..." said Claire, her voice trailing off.

"I'm only looking out for her; I just don't want to see her hurt," I said.

Claire put down the large sketch book on her lap, where she was drawing some type of new shoe for work.

"Honey, you can't protect her all the time. She needs to get out there, and experience things for herself. She can look after herself," said Claire.

"I know, I just... ugh..." I ran my fingers through my hair, "I want to be there for her, I guess."

Claire came over and sat down next to me, her head against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her.

"You can't protect her from everything you know. I know we only just got her back, but we don't want to suffocate her, give her too many rules and restrictions. We need her to give her some space, I don't want her to push us away," said Claire nestling against me.

I thought about it for a while, and I guess Claire was right. Carrie wasn't a kid, she could choose who she hung out with, who her friends are and as much as I hated to admit it, who she dated.

"I'm still not happy that Flick's not gay though," I grumbled into her hair.

Claire chuckled.

**Finn's POV**

I had just shown Carrie into the meeting that Amelie wanted her to attend, all the badass vamps were there, which must mean it was pretty serious. Amelie's bodyguards denied me access.

I sighed. Some things never changed. I was always going to be the working class vampire, the servant if you will. I was only good as remedy or when some poor little Princess wanted a shoulder to cry on because she was forced to become queen for nine days and her husband was a complete dick.

I didn't even know what they were talking about; it involved Carrie, which must be pretty serious. I really didn't want her to get hurt again, I would have to watch her do all these horrible things and not even stop all those people from touching her. It hurt me when all those other people touched her. It hurt because I couldn't touch her like that, despite how much I wanted to, despite how much I _loved_ her. They didn't even do it because they liked her; they did it for the pleasure. I wasn't fair.

I sighed and stormed off into my room. I ripped off my shirt and took off my shoes and killed computer animated zombies attacking me on the TV.

It was about eleven pm when there was a knock at my door. The meeting must finally be over.

_Carrie_. My heart jumped at the thought of Carrie at the door. I sprang of the bed vampire speed and raced to the door, forgetting I didn't have a shirt on.

It was only Victoria at the door. She looked up smiling at me; I stared down at her blankly.

"Hey Finn," she said, taking longer than necessary to pronounce my name.

"What do you want?" I asked her, not sure why she was wasting her time talking to me.

She probably wanted to catch up; I hadn't seen her since New York in the eighties.

"Well, I was in Morganville on business... and I was wondering whether you wanted to be an extended part of my little trip..." her voice was like silk and her hand stroked my bare chest.

I glanced down at her, surprised by her offer, uncomfortable with her touching me.

"Sorry Vicky, I'm not in the mood..." I said, about to close the door in her face.

Her blue eyes went from calm ocean wave to stormy sea. With a boat trapped in its waves and no lighthouse to help. Her fingernails dug into my chest.

"It's that girl isn't it?" her voice was angry now.

"Vic, it's not anyone. I'm not in the mood for you," I told her.

"Bullshit," she said. Her eyes were burning into me. I knew I should have dropped her gaze, but I couldn't. She was hypnotising me with her vampire powers.

"Listen here _Finny. _That girl, _Clarissa_, is just some prostitute for vampires. She's just a worthless cheap piece of shit. So forget about her, cause she's nothing. She's just a little human who is easily controlled. She's _nothing_" she snapped into my in my face.

I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Her eyes were so hypnotising.

But she was wrong. So very wrong. Carrie was beautiful; she was beautiful in so many ways. She was everything to me. Her personality, the way she could make me laugh, _everything._ I loved everything about Carrie. I l_oved_ her. I loved her with all my heart.

But I didn't say any of it. I was frozen.

"Now laugh and agree with me," she whispered into my ear, so quiet I could barely hear her.

I laughed mechanically and let her kiss me.

The laugh wasn't mine and I didn't want to kiss her. But I didn't have the willpower to fight against her.

I was vaguely aware of a muffled cry behind Victoria before she pushed herself onto me closing the door behind her.

But that muffled cry stayed with me for the rest of the night.

**Extra long chapter for you guys because I'm so nice... Also because I have nothing better to do with my life... **

**So according to Shane 'Flick' definitely isn't gay... and he clearly isn't... But who does that muffled cry come from...?**

**Thanks for reading and please review to tell me what you thought and what you think is going to happen next! :)**


	13. Family Make Everything Better

Chapter 13

**Carrie's POV**

I yawned and rubbed my eyes as I walked out of the meeting. Hell that was long. But I had the plane tickets to Milan sorted as well as fake credentials and a full character profile of who I was going to be. Now all I had to do was wait until the end of the week for the plane and get into character.

It was late and I should have gone back to the Glass House now, but I wanted to say goodbye to Finn. I walked up the stairs leading me to the other side of the Founder's building, where Finn's room was.

"-just some prostitute for vampires. She's just a worthless cheap piece of shit. So forget about her, cause she's nothing. She's just a little human who is easily controlled. She's _nothing_"

I froze. I clutched the folders closer to my chest. I stepped out the corner, getting a view.

They hadn't noticed I was standing there yet. Some blonde bitch had her back to me facing Finn, her hand stroking his bare chest, her fingers gently caressing his soft skin. He was looking down at her, eyes not leaving her face.

He didn't even try to defend me.

I throat closed up. Tears started to form in my eyes. All those times he said I was better, all those times he said I was worth much more than that, all those times he said I deserved better. _He lied._ It was Finn's words that gave me reassurance, his words that stopped my going into meltdown. But it was all true. I was right; I was just some cheap prostitute and I was always going to be. I wasn't going to amount to anything.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to rip his face. Scratch away his perfect features. I just wanted him to disappear and never come back.

She was whispering in his ear, whatever she said obviously made the little bastard happy. He laughed and started to make out with her. Tongue and everything. I wanted to be sick. But instead I just let the tears fall; a small cry escaped my mouth before I could stop it.

They walked into his room together. Bitch whore even had the nerve to throw a wink at me before closing the door behind her. I left, half running, but I still heard moaning and bed springs creaking.

**Shane's POV**

Carrie still wasn't home. I was worried about her now, it was late and I didn't trust Flick, no matter how much Claire tried to reassure me.

I flicked through the late night channels, trying to find something decent to watch. I was going to wait up until she came home, I would stay up all night if I had to. Michael and Eve had gone to bed and Claire was in the kitchen typing on her laptop furiously.

I heard the front door slam. I quickly raced to see who it was. _Carrie_. Her long hair whipped around her face and her hoodie pulled up. She was looking down, and wanted like she wanted to make a run for the stairs.

"You okay honey?" I asked her, walking up to her so she had no choice but to answer me.

She looked up at me. Her eyes were wet and her face was stained with tears.

I was going to kill Flick.

And then she just broke into tears. Seeing her unhappy broke my heart, I wrapped my arms around her, letting her cry into my chest, her tears staining my t-shirt. I kissed the top of her head and gently stroking her hair, hoping that it would somehow comfort her.

"It's okay baby, shh shh," I murmured, gently rocking her to and fro, like I did when she cried as a baby. But she just cried harder.

"What's wrong with me daddy?" she asked between tears.

Suddenly I stopped thinking about the most painful, longest death I could put Finn through and focused on my daughter. She had stopped shaking with tears and was just waiting for a response.

"You're perfect and don't let anyone tell you anything else," she stayed silent.

"I'm not though am I?" she said, her face buried in my chest. "People use me, they use me for sex, they use me to kill vampires. They use me cause they can. They use me because I'm just a worthless piece of shit who they can easily manipulate. I'm not anything."

Her voice was steady, as if she already knew the answer to her question. I held her at arm's length, looking straight into her green eyes.

"Listen to me. Forget what everyone else says. You're beautiful, strong and you don't have to listen to what people say to you. You're worth much more than what everyone else thinks. You know why?"

She didn't say anything but she didn't look away either.

"You're my daughter, and I'm telling you because you are."

She hugged me; I wrapped my arms around her and gently stroked her soft hair.

"Come on," I said putting my arm around her shoulder as I led her towards the living room. We sat down on the couch and watched mindlessly watched a sitcom until she fell asleep against me.

**Carrie's POV**

_"-just some prostitute for vampires. She's just a worthless cheap piece of shit. So forget about her, cause she's nothing. She's just a little human who is easily controlled. She's nothing" _

The words kept ringing in my head and they wouldn't stop.

My eyes shot open. Great, another nightmare. I blinked a few times, remembering where I was. I was cuddled up with Shane on the couch. I remembered what he told me, his words comforted me then, but I just felt alone and empty now. I wasn't sure why, cause after...after _Finn_ would say something like that to me I would be okay. I would be better than okay, and then I realised only _he _would make me feel better.

I didn't know what Finn did to make like that. I mean what was so special about _Finn? _But he made me feel so different, no one else would make me feel like that, even just playing video games together would be better that having sex with some vampire. I didn't feel anything with the vamps, but with Finn? Just being in the same as him made me happy. I wasn't sure why he did that to me,

I rubbed my eyes, slowly standing up, careful not to wake Shane who was asleep on the couch. I yawned and shook my hair out of my face as I left the room, wanting to sleep.

The light was still on in the kitchen and I heard the sound of typing on a laptop. The door was closed; I knocked slightly on it, before stepping in.

Claire was sat at the table, laptop in front of her with a wine glass half full and the bottle next to it. She didn't hear me knock, as she kept her eyes focussed on the screen in front of her.

"Claire?" I asked, taking a seat next to her. She stopped typing and looked up at me smiling.

"Are you okay?" she asked concerned, taking a sip of wine.

"Yeah," I said, pulling the sleeves of my hoodie further up my hands.

I didn't know whether to tell her, talking to Shane made me feel better, even for a bit. So maybe talking to Claire would make me feel better for good?

She still hadn't gone back to her laptop, so I think she was waiting for me to talk to her.

"How do you know when you like someone?" I spat out, before I could regret it.

She put down her glass, and looked straight at me. I knew she knew who I was talking about, but she didn't say anything.

"You might not realise it at first, you might not even know whether that feeling is attraction, but when the time comes you'll know it," she said nodding.

I looked down and breathed out a sigh, "Thanks," I say nodding.

"Come here," she says, enveloping me into a hug. It was comforting and I felt like I could tell her anything, and actually trust her with it. I didn't feel like that with anyone except...

"I should go bed," I say as we broke apart.

She smiled at me, "You know you can trust me with anything right, and I'm always here to talk if you want to."

"Yeah I know, thanks," I say smiling. She followed me out of the room and went into the living room where Shane was asleep.

I picked up the folder which I left on the table coming in on the table next to the door and walked up the stairs. I curled up on my bed and tried to think of anyone other than Finn.

**So should Carrie thinks her and Finn have somthing, but after she saw him making out with that girl and not defending her when she spoke crap about her? She must be pretty confused right?**

**Also some Claire/Carrie and Shane/Carrie moments in this chapter aww :')**

**Please REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW :D  
**

**I want to know what you guys think is going to happen next, especially when Carrie's off to Milan soon...**


	14. Waffles

Chapter 14

**Finn's POV**

I was facedown against my pillow. My back hurt and I could feel somebody watching me.

I turned my head and blinked a couple of times to see a blonde woman lying next to me completely naked. She smiled at me, a slow seductive smile. It did nothing for me.

"Victoria?" I asked dumbfounded. I didn't remember anything from the previous night.

"Morning handsome," she said, leaning over and kissing the edge of my mouth teasingly. "Now, I have to go, I've got a plane to catch back to New York, but..." She got off the bed, standing in front of me, so I got a full view of her _assets_. "I had fun last night and I shall be looking forward to next time," she said putting on her underwear.

I was confused, did we? But I didn't remember and I never would have agreed...

"What happened last night?" I asked her confused as I ran my hand through my bed hair.

She giggled, "Well, let's just say we had a bit of fun last night. The broken bed frame and your back are proof of that," she started putting on the rest of her clothes whilst I stared at chunks of wooden bed frame on the floor. And it explained why my back hurt; I had deep scratches covering the length of my back from where her fingernails had dug into me.

"Say hello to Clarissa for me," Victoria said, now fully clothed and leaning against the doorframe of my now half opened door. "She seemed rather upset, when she saw us together..."

She winked at me and left the room, closing the door behind her.

The memories from last night came flooding back to me as soon as she had left the room. The touching. The kissing. The words. Carrie. _Carrie._

I fell back onto the bed, rubbing my face trying to make sense of what I had just done. Carrie had heard every word Victoria had said about her. And she had seen me kiss her. Kiss her straight after I didn't defend the girl I loved. Shit didn't even cover it.

**Carrie's POV**

I stared at the sunlight hitting the wood of the wardrobe, the small specks of dust dancing around in the light. I rolled over so my head facing the ceiling. I had spent the majority of the night tossing and turning, not being able to get to sleep. The words kept running through my head and I couldn't stop them.

I sighed and got out of bed. I put on my bath robe and went downstairs to eat my weight in waffles to cheer me up.

Shane and Claire were leaning against the stove drinking coffee. I sat down at the table and put my head on the table.

"Waffles. I want waffles," I said before they could question my breakdown last night.

"Waffles it is then," said Shane. I heard the fridge open then close and then the mixing of batter. The chair in front me scraped against the kitchen floor. I didn't look up.

"How's the idea of school sound to you Carrie?" Shane said out of the blue.

My head shot up. Claire was sitting in front of me and Shane was carefully watching me from the stove, pancake batter on the worktop beside him.

"As in _high school?_" I clarified.

"Yes..." he said, his voice trailing off.

I frowned. I've never been to school before, and from what movies showed American high school looked like the worst of them all. Being shoved in lockers and eating my lunch in the bathroom didn't particularly appeal to me.

"You don't have to, if you don't want to," said Claire after seeing the expression on my face.

But the movies weren't real; they were created to entertain you. I mean, Morganville probably didn't have a basket ball team that burst out into song and they probably didn't have their own set of plastics.

"I might as well try it... I mean, it can't be that bad right?" I asked her, my voice still unsure.

She looked surprised that I'd changed my mind, "Course it isn't," she said, convincingly as she could. Well, this was going to suck.

**_Later on that day..._**

Claire and Shane hadn't spoken about my meltdown yesterday night, I could tell they both wanted to question me, but they didn't and I respected that.

"Morganville High want an interview," said Shane sitting down in the armchair.

Me and Claire were watching a re-run episode of Friends on the couch. We looked up.

_"Already?" _I asked. I didn't expect an interview that fast, in fact I was hoping that they had a very long list, meaning that I wouldn't have to endure the pain of high school anytime soon.

"Yup, they asked whether you could be there in an hour and a half..." he said, glancing in my direction throwing a baseball in the air and catching it.

_"An hour and a half?!" _I exclaimed. My eyes grew wide, _shit. _This was the time to panic. I was going to get thrown out of that school straight after the interview.

"Hey it's okay, it's only an interview. You'll get in easy," Claire said trying to reassure me.

It wasn't the interview part that scared me; they were going to find out how much of an idiot I am.

I sighed and went upstairs to sulk for an hour and a half.

**Shane's POV**

What Carrie said yesterday still bugged me. I couldn't believe she said all those things about herself, I tried to comfort her, make her feel better, but I don't think it worked. Maybe high school would take her mind of it, give her a chance to do something normal. I know, high school is a hell hole, I hated the short amount of time I spent there, but you never know, Carrie might like it...

"Carrie! Come on, you're going to be late!" I called up the stairs.

"Do I have to go?" she grumbled as she came down the stairs.

"Yes, now come on," I said getting the car keys.

She glared at the floor as she put on her Converses.

"You'll be fine, go on," said Claire coming out of the kitchen, hugging her as Carrie followed me out of the door.

Carrie didn't look so enthusiastic; she glared through the window until I stopped the car in front of the school gates.

She sighed, "Might as well get this over and done with," she said opening the passenger door.

"Want me to come with you?" I asked.

"No, it's fine," but she sounded like she regretted it as soon as she said it. "Thanks though," she hesitated before hugging me.

I was surprised, I didn't expect that, but I put my arms around her and told her the interview would be great. She smiled at me and got out of the car, giving me a small wave from the gates before disappearing in the school.

I sighed. Why did they have to grow up so fast?

**Claire's POV**

Shane had just taken Carrie out for her interview. It gave me a bit of time that I needed. I quickly switched my phone on and skimmed though my contacts; ignoring the beeping of messages and notifications I had missed.

I found the right number and pressed call. I waiting anxiously as it started ringing, tapping the heel of my shoe against the floor.

It went straight to voicemail. It was typical of him, he _never _answered his phone. I sighed in frustration and tried again. Straight to voicemail.

I heard the front door open, Shane must be back. _Shit, _that didn't give me nearly enough time. I quickly switched the phone off and put it back in my pocket. I walked over to Shane who had just walked through the front door before wrapping my arms around his neck and feeling his lips against mine.

**Carrie's off to the Morganville High interview, but how will it go...?**

**Finn's suffering the aftermath of last night's events and Claire? Well, what's she up to? And who is the '****_he' _****that had his phone switched off?**

**Did she have a boyfriend whilst she was in New York, that she forgot to mention? What if she even had a husband and kids? **

**Let me know what you think! And what's going to happen next!**

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	15. Interviews and Secrets

Chapter 15

**Finn's POV**

I was still trying to get my head around at what had happened last night. Victoria was known for her hypnotising, every vampire has the ability to do it, except you had to perfect it, to be good as Victoria took you years, even Victoria had spent decades trying to get as good as she is now.

She had started using it on me since I opened the door, and then through the whole night, only releasing me from her powers until the morning when she left. Then she stopped using them on returning my memories to me, leaving me alone in the room to ponder what I had just done.

Carrie would never speak to me again, and I didn't blame her. She thought I actually agreed with Victoria, and she had the evidence right there in front of her. She's never going to forgive me, I didn't blame her, but it killed me to know I wouldn't ever be able to tell her I loved her.

**Carrie's POV**

I knew this would happen. They had me waiting outside the principal's office. They had made me do some test papers before they interviewed me, which I had probably failed miserably. Now they were _'discussing my results_' inside, which roughly translated into _'bitching about how dumb the vampire prostitute'_ is. I had my iPhone out playing Doodle Jump waiting for them to unveil the not so surprising news.

The school receptionist came in with a boy who looked about my age with tousled sandy brown hair, which looked like he had been spent time, and money, to make look messy as it is now. He had blue eyes and had a backpack slung over his shoulder. He was quite hot, not that I was checking him out or anything.

"Sit here, the principle will see you shortly," she said in bored tone, before leaving to go back to her desk.

"You new here?" the boy asked me from the seats opposite me.

I looked up to see that he was talking to me.

"Yeah, they had me do some test and then they interrogated me," I told him.

He chuckled, I fought back a blush. "So, what you here for?" I asked.

"The teacher just doesn't like me very much..." he said, his voice trailing off. I raised an eyebrow.

"The teacher also didn't believe me when I told him I was having a seizure in the middle of the pop quiz," he said shrugging.

I laughed, and went back to my phone.

"So, you got a name to go with the pretty face?" he said cockily, smirk on his face.

I was about to answer his question when the principal opened the door and peered out. Her eyes found mine and then at the boy opposite me.

"Ethan, what have you done now?" she asked sighing. "Forget it, just wait there for now. I don't have time for your foolishness," she said waving her hand in dismissal. Her eyes met mine; I gulped, nervously awaiting my fate.

"Carrie we're just waiting for your parents to come in, and we'll discuss your results," she said smiling at me. I gave her a small smile back.

_Shit, _if they had called my parents in then it must be serious, right? I must be so much of a dumb shit that they wanted to send me to one of those _'special'_ schools, the type where teenagers didn't know how to read or write. Well, at least I could do that.

"Hey," said the boy, Ethan, "It'll be okay, they probably just want to talk to your parents about school details and stuff."

He was trying to reassure me, but he didn't know anything about me. He didn't know how I felt, he didn't know about all the things I had done. He knew nothing about me, there was only one person who did, and that one person was now the biggest backstabbing asshole I knew. Nevertheless I smiled back at him. I nervously picked at my nails on my lap, praying that Shane and Claire would hurry up so they would put me out of my miseries.

The principal walked out of her office and walked past us. She returned a few minutes later with Shane and Claire, I sighed in relief, never so happy to have parental authorities. I quickly jumped up and followed them into the office.

I took a seat next to Claire, the fact that it was the closest to the door and had the biggest distance from the desk had nothing to do with it...

"Mr and Mrs Collins, it's wonderful that you have expressed your interest in Morganville High..."

Okay, she's letting them down easily, now comes to the part where she smashes their dreams...

..."and we'd be happy to accept Carrie into Morganville High with open arms," she said smiling.

Well that was unexpected.

**Shane's POV**

I knew she would get in! She was clever; she just had to believe in herself. Carrie had shock and surprise sprawled all over her face, her mouth was even hanging open slightly.

"Her test results were excellent. Carrie excels in many categories; the papers for History and English Literature are exceptional. Maths and science needs some work, but it'll be no problem," the principle says, smiling at Carrie.

She thanked us for coming in and gave us all the details about timings, but by then I had stopped listening. I was so proud of Carrie, I knew she had never gone to school before and this was a whole new experience for her, but she had done it! My baby girl, I was so proud of her!

Claire and I thanked the principal, and she told Carrie that she'd look forward to seeing her on Monday.

"I told you you'd get in!" I told her triumphantly. Her shocked expression had now turned into a grin.

Claire made tacos that night, my second chance was just as perfect as I had first imagined it.

**Claire's POV**

Jesus, why did he have to take so long? It was cold and he suggested that we meet in an _alley way. _He suggested that we meet in an _alley way, _an _alley way _in a town that was full of vampires. Great thinking I know, he hadn't changed and for some reason I felt reassured by that.

"Claire?" a dark figure approached the entrance.

I looked up and met his cold embrace.

"I've missed you little one," he murmured, "You seem to have grown quite a bit, but I think it's those fancy new shoes of yours," he said chuckling.

I breathed in, "You know why I called you here..."

"Yes... and I told you I can't... Amelie's set it all up, I mentioned it to you by accident, you weren't even supposed to know..."

His excuse wasn't good enough and I wanted to put an end to this... this... whatever this is...

I grabbed him by the collar of his long coat and brought him against the wall, his head making a crunching sound against the collision of the brick wall.

"I want her _out_ of this Myrnin, and I will be doing what I can so that she doesn't have to," I almost snarled in his face.

And with that I let go of him, causing him to slightly stumble as his feet touched the ground, I heard his breathing turn into panting as I walked out of the alleyway back to the Glass House.

**Carrie got into Morganville High! But who was that Claire was secretly meeting? And why was she meeting him...?**

**Okay, so I've decided to be a bit mean and not going to put up the next chapter until I get ****_at least _****_five_**** reviews for this chapter. I repeat ****_FIVE REVIEWS!_**

**I didn't get any for the last chapter, and it's kinda annoying, I know people have read it... and I want to know what people think, or whether this story is even good or whether it's just complete bullshitness and I should never write again...**

**So ****_FIVE REVIEWS_** **_NEW CHAPTER_**


	16. Excuses and Drunken Nights

Chapter 16

**Carrie's POV**

I still couldn't stop thinking about him. I missed having him in my bed every night. I missed his strong arms wound around me. I missed him. I missed all of this despite what he thought of me. Fucked up I know.

I shifted through the papers at the desk, trying to get this stupid character profile memorised and figured out. I was leaving for Milan tomorrow, and I still had to figure out what I was going to tell Shane and Claire. I mean, I just couldn't disappear over a weekend unexplained, and I needed a good excuse, it couldn't be something lame, it had to be something believable and worth travelling half way across the world for.

I knew I shouldn't be doing this, but this guy had to be stopped! I mean he was selling kids as slaves! I didn't have to do it, but I guess it was worth it, I mean those kids had a future, I didn't. And after all me hurt was better than a bunch of kids getting hurt because of a stupid vampire.

"Carrie," said Shane at the door.

I swivelled around in the swivel chair to face him.

"Someone's here to see you..."

"Who is it?" I asked alarmed. _Please don't be Finn, Please don't be Finn, Please don't be Finn, _I silently prayed. I didn't want to see him right now.

"It's Amelie..." his voice trailed off.

I sighed in relief, "I'll be down soon," I told him. He nodded and went back downstairs.

Was it weird that I was happier to see the Ice Queen who had an army at her command, than my ex-best friend?

I padded downstairs to see Amelie sitting down on the couch with a few body guards surrounding her. She was dressed in an ivory silk suit and looked out of place here. Shane and Claire were sitting on the opposite couch, listening to whatever she wanted to talk to them about.

"... and she has a large number of belongings scattered across the world, and I'm sure she'd like them back..."

"Ah, Carrie, so glad you could join us..." she said eyeing me at the doorway, "I was just telling your parents, about whether you could make a few trips over the weekend..."

My excuse for getting out of town was here, I improvised with the false excuse.

"Oh yeah, I've got loads of clothes and stuff everywhere, could I get them all back... I mean I need more shoes and stuff if I'm going to school..." my voice trailing off, looking at Shane and Claire from the doorway.

"Obviously I will pay for the travelling costs," Amelie piped in, hoping it would give Shane and Claire the extra push to let me go.

Shane and Claire exchanged a look, before Claire shrugged.

"I guess she could go..." said Shane. "Depending who goes with her..."

"I was planning for Carrie to go unsupervised, I don't have anyone available over the weekend to make a trip, but I suppose I could spare a guard," Amelie explained, though she didn't sound willing to let a guard go on a little holiday.

"I'm not really bothered who goes, as long as she doesn't get into any trouble and Flick doesn't go with her," said Shane. I mentally face palmed myself.

"Flick...?" Amelie questioned, sounding confused, her perfectly sculpted eyebrows knitted together. She turned her head towards me, asking me to silently explain.

"He means Finn," I told her. God, why did it hurt to say his damn name? I shook my head at her, silently indicating not to ask.

"Well, if that's all, then I'll be on my way," she said getting up, her vampire bodyguards following closely behind. "A car will pick you up at 8am tomorrow morning, so be prompt."

"Er... Amelie could I speak to you about something?" said Claire, getting up. "In private," she added.

Amelie didn't look surprised at her request, "Of course Claire, perhaps we could speak in the car." Claire nodded and followed her outside, bodyguards surrounding Amelie.

I frowned and sat down on the couch next to Shane. "Why does she want to speak to Amelie?" I asked him, hoping he'd fill me in.

"I'm not sure sweetheart, might be about her old job in Morganville," said Shane shrugging.

"What did she do?" I asked curious, maybe she had her own boutique where she sold the clothes and stuff she had designed.

"She was a scientist, mostly physics and stuff. I didn't understand half of the stuff she did, but she's into all of that stuff," he told me.

I felt my eyes go wide, surprised at how much of a difference it was from my expectation. Physics. Wow... she must be pretty clever then...

Shane chuckled at my expression, "Why so surprised?"

"It was just different from what I expected... I thought she owned a clothes shop or something..." I said shrugging.

"You know she used to work for Myrnin too?"

I spluttered, "Myrnin?" I asked, eyes wide. "As in Myrnin with the vampire bunny slippers?"

He nodded, starting to laugh at my shocked expression.

And for the first time in ages, I burst out laughing.

**Finn's POV**

I needed more. I let my hand fall onto the floor where I felt my hand brush against the coldness of another bottle. Bingo. My hand tightened, without using the vampire strength, around the vodka bottle and feebly dragged it onto the bed. I had picked Vodka. Russian Vodka. Obviously I hadn't been drained completely of luck. I unscrewed the bottle and lifted it to my lips. I felt the burn of the alcohol run down my throat. Shit, this stuff was good. I sank back onto the bed and felt the sweet, intense burn sliding down in my throat and then nestle into the pit of my stomach. I closed my eyes at the intensity and bliss of it.

I knew I should have gone to Carrie and explained, but it hurt to think of how much pain I had caused her. I was a coward I know. I just wanted something to numb the pain, and alcohol seemed like the perfect solution.

I felt someone hovering above me. I blinked, my vision blurry. There was a blur of white peering down at me.

"Are you an angel?" I absentmindedly slurred.

The angel had a clear voice. Like ice. It was sharp and left pinpricks in my brain. I groaned turning away from the angel, closing my eyes shut. I felt its cold touch caress my cheek, and gently stroke my forehead. I moaned, it felt nice; it put out the fire that my skin was under.

The angel said something to me again, but by then, I was already back under the alcohol's spell.

**Sorry if this chapter is a bit boring, next chapter will be more exciting and is going to be about Carrie in Milan... with a few extra surprises...**

**Thank you for the reviews, I really appreciate it :D **

**So review again for this chapter, I want to know what people think! Who's the ****_angel _****that has apparently visited Finn? And what do you think is going to happen in Milan, cause it's not all going to be vampire killings... And what's Claire up to? Anyone guess?**

**Thanks for reading :)**


	17. Milan

Chapter 17

_Milan, Italy_

**Carrie's POV**

The ceiling was shaped like a dome, with stain glass windows covering the surface, the sun hit the different coloured glass a spectrum would form on the other side of the wall. Paintings covered the walls, with elaborate gold frames with intricate details and patterns were carved onto them. There was a giant fireplace at the far side of the room, burning wood, giving the room a lovely warm glow and left my exposed skin pleasantly warm. The room was beautiful. Canapés and small savoury tarts filled with shrimp were being served around the room by waiters in tuxedos.

The room was full of people socialising and laughing together, some of it in English, some of them speaking Italian, this is when speaking more than one language came in useful, you could easily understand what people were saying. I scanned the room, looking for Barclay. He hadn't yet made an appearance, but I was counting on his arrival.

"Barclay's about to enter, he's walking through the corridor," Oliver quietly whispered into my ear. I nodded slightly and tightened my grip on his arm, "And remember don't say anything, I'll introduce you as Evangeline." I nodded again and took a sip of champagne from the glass I held in my left hand.

The wide doors opened slightly, and a tall man with shoulder length dirty blonde hair slipped though. Target acquired. He came in unnoticed also without attracting any attention. Barclay went over to a server and took a glass of champagne and looked around the room. I immediately looked away, hoping not to attract and unwanted or immediate attention or suspicion from him. I became fixated on the painting above the fireplace.

"Barclay!" Oliver called out, loud enough to attract attention of our victim, but not loud enough to attract the attention of the other people in the room. I slowly turned around to look at him making his way toward us, I let a slow blush work down my cheeks and then down to my chest. He would think I was getting flustered over him, also making it clear I was human.

His eyes met mine, I stared back, my eyes wide. He held eye contact as he got closer, before he was standing right in front of us.

"Oliver," he says nodding at him, but he hadn't taken his eyes off mine. "And... this is..." eyes burning with intensity as well as curiosity.

"This is my daughter Evangeline," says Oliver, answering for me, letting free of my arm so it dangled beside me. Barclay lifted my newly free arm and lifted it towards his mouth, before carefully planting a kiss onto my hand. His lips were cold, but they were soft. I could feel my heart rate accelerate, I knew he could hear the blood pump faster through my permeably skin, and it would give him a sense of satisfaction. The slight satisfaction that he could so easy fluster me or get my heart racing.

"Human..." Barclay says, eyeing me carefully, letting go of my hand. I kept quiet, letting facial expressions and gestures give him whatever vile impression he wanted of me. "Adopted?" he asked Oliver, finally looking away from my eyes.

"Of course," says Oliver.

"Interesting..." says Barclay, tracing a finger across my cheekbone, leaving a trail of small goose bumps on the skin. "I shall look forward to seeing you later," he paused and leaned into me, so he was hovering above my shoulder, his lips in my ear, "you smell lovely by the way." And with that he turned away, and walked out of the door.

As soon as he was gone out of sight, I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding in.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the auction shall begin shortly. The Great Hall is now open, if you'd like to make your way through," said a voice near the entrance. It was too crowded to see who it was, but it was the thing I was dreading the most. The auction.

**Barclay's POV**

The auction was going well and the children were selling like cakes in a bakery. I turned around going back into my study. I intended to have my way with Oliver's adopted spawn; her scent was so rich and irresistibly sweet. I wanted it stained across my mouth and bed sheets. I had instructed someone to invite her into my study once the auction had finished.

The doors flung open, as I entered my office. I froze, something wasn't right, someone was here. A heartbeat. A steady, strong heartbeat. I looked around for the source. There it was. It was a she. A _very_ nice she. She was lying sideways on the leather sofa, looking straight at me. One of her hands propped her head up and the other was draped across her side. Her hair was dark chocolate which hung in thick waves across her back. I raised an eyebrow at her, as to question her obvious intentions.

"Don't you think its wrong?" she asked, positioning herself into an upright position. Her voice almost sent shivers down my spine, it was like silk, seductive silk. It was the type of voice you wanted your name to be whimpered, pleading for more against your chest. I hadn't answered her question.

She stood up from her sitting position on the couch, her dress moved like a river along with her. It clung to her perfect body, hugging every corner and side and showed off her beautiful body. It was long and black, both complementing and contrasting with her pale white skin.

"You haven't answered my question," she said, walking over to where I was standing. Her back was against the door, and she was nearly pressed up against me.

"I don't know what you're referring to," I told her. I refused to show any signs of weakness because of her looks, I kept my voice even, showing no emotion.

"Now, I'm sure you do. You might want to think _extra _hard," she says blinking up at me. "Here, I'll give you a clue," she was trailing her left hand across the collar of my shirt, stopping at where it met the knot of my tie. "Selling children as slaves? Do you even _think _it's immoral?"

"I don't care what happens to them, I'm running a business here not a nursery," I told her, curious as to what she would so next. A slow smile grew on her face, lighting up her eyes. That wasn't the response I expected.

"Well, I might have to show you the error of your ways then..." she says, slowly untying my tie, letting it run through her fingers. She closed the door behind us with a thud, before pushing me onto my desk. Finally we were getting somewhere.

My hands skimmed across her arms, she was warm blooded and I wanted the feel of that running down the side of my mouth. She pushed me down onto the desk, so I was lying back down on it, I distantly heard the sound of clattering on the floor as papers and belongings fell down onto the floor. She was carefully hovering over me, hesitating to do whatever it was she wanted to do with me.

"I thought you were going to show me the error of my ways," I asked her, my hands travelling to her waist gently holding her there.

"I am. Now close your eyes, this might hurt," I listened to what she said, I hoped she was referring to a spanking; I wasn't a fan of the chains, unless she was the person being chained.

I felt her hands remove the layers of clothing I had on my chest, until I felt her soft, warm hands caress the skin above my heart.

Then I felt something pierce it. It was sharp and it went straight through my heart. I felt something spread through my heart, it was cold and it was like poison. It made a full circulation around my body, spreading through every dead vein, artery and organ I had in my body. I tried to open my eyes again, but it was already too late.

**Shane's POV**

I stared at the moving pictures on the TV, hoping it would pass the time and suppress my boredom. Carrie had gone on a crazy trip around the world to get all her stuff and Claire had gone back to New York for the weekend to sell her apartment, get all her stuff and sort out work stuff. I didn't want her to resign from her fancy fashion place, but she said she wanted to, and wanted to come back and work with Myrnin. Crazy right?

It had been just over twelve hours since they had gone and only sixty to go. I had already done something that was on my 'to do list', get a job. The other thing I had to do, had to wait until tomorrow, I wasn't going to put up with cutting bits of meat for the rest of my life. I had applied for this construction job at the edge of town, they were knocking down the crumbling buildings that were old with age, and building some new offices or whatever, I hoped I got the job, not only did I need money, I need something to do when Carrie was at school and everyone else was at work.

I heard the doorbell ring; I got up to answer it. It was too early for Michael or Eve to be home, so it got me wondering. I opened it to reveal a blonde woman, with her dress reaching above half way her thigh. _Shit._

"Hi Shane!" Alex says too enthusiastically. "I was in the neighbourhood, and I remembered how much fun we had last time... so I was wondering whether you were up to do it again..." She was already pressed up against me, trying to get in.

"Sorry Alex, I'm seeing someone right now," I tried to tell her as gently as I could. But her face remained determined.

She stared at me with a blank expression for a few seconds. "My name's Alicia. Not Alex. And don't worry, I'm sure she won't find out..." she says, trying to wrestle her way in.

"No. I'm in a relationship and I don't want any messing about," I told her firmly.

Eventually she got the picture after I slammed the door in her face, and after grovelling at the doorstep for a few minutes, she finally sulked off somewhere.

When I had said I wasn't seeing anyone, I had kinda meant it. Alex, Alicia or whatever her name is, wasn't Claire. I didn't love her. I didn't love any of them. I compared each one of them to Claire whenever I was with them; none of them came even close. It was Claire I wanted. It was Claire I loved. And it was Claire I wanted to be with.

I sighed and took out the wedding ring she gave back to me before she left. It sparkled as it hit the light coming from the windows and I wondered if she'd wear it again if I asked her.

**What do you think? Thanks for reading and please review! Any chance of 5 reviews...? :)**


	18. Notes and Suspicion

Chapter 18

**Carrie's POV**

I walked through the corridor, making my way to Barclay's study. He had summoned me after the auction, which was worse than I thought it would be. I had to pretend everything was okay and this was acceptable, I was fighting back the bile in my throat the whole time. The corridor, I had to admit, was beautiful, the walls were soft velvet and gold threads were sewn into the surface into an intricate pattern. I reached the door at the end of the wall; the large white doors had handles midway with gold etched onto the edges and details of the door. The doors opened silently as I entered, bracing myself for whatever horrible thing I had to do next, but I didn't have to. Barclay was lying across the desk. With a silver stake sticking out of his chest.

I gripped the handles of the door tighter, my legs buckling beneath me. Someone had killed him. I wasn't sure what to do next, but I knew if someone saw me in the room with him, I was going to get caught regardless of whether or not I had killed him. I quickly glanced behind, breathing out a sigh of relief when I saw no one was there before closing the door silently, slowing down when the doors brushed each other.

I turned my attention back to the dead vampire lying across his desk; I made my way to him, circling around his body. His shirt was opened by its buttons, his blood beginning to dry on the stains on his crisp white shirt, and the stake was in a perfect position above his heart. Barclay's pale face was now ashen, his blue eyes where open, rolling back in his head. I hesitantly put my hand over his eyes, closing them and ending his stare at me.

Then I noticed something clenched in his fist. I wrestled the piece of paper out of his cold iron grip; maybe it was a clue as to who had killed him. I gently unfolded the crumpled piece of paper, trying hard not to rip the only bit of evidence I had. There was a neat script sprawled across the creased bit of paper, but it wasn't about Barclay, it was about me.

_You lied to me Carrie Collins_

I stared back at Barclay's dead face, could he have written it? I didn't know what to do now; I held the scrap of paper in my hand, clenching it in my fist. I started to get scared, my stomach bursting into butterflies. I didn't want this, I didn't want to be a spy for the vampires, I just wanted a normal life now. Claire and Shane have shown me what a normal life could be, and I wanted it. I wanted to go to school and have friends and just do whatever people my age did. A tear slipped through the corner of my eye and I wiped it away before it had a chance to fall down my face. But whoever wrote this, knew who I truely was, not _Clarissa, _but they knew I was really Carrie Collins.

There was a slight knock at the door. I jumped startled. A second later the door opened to reveal Oliver standing at the door. I breathed in a sigh of relief, and I had an urge to almost hug him, but knowing Oliver, I knew it wouldn't be a good idea. I quickly folded the piece of paper and put it in the zip of my clutch, before I would have to explain myself.

He stared at the dead vampire on the desk and his face broke out into a small smile.

"Well, that was quick Clarissa. Amelie will be most pleased with your work," he said inspecting the killing. I gave him a small smile and my fist closed around the piece of paper tighter as I took claim over someone else's work.

**Third Person POV**

Half an hour later, vampires had the building surrounded. People were in hysterias as vampires questioned each of them, interrogating them on their part of the auction. All of the details on who bought which child had been found, and the children would be returned home before the sun rose in a couple of hours.

Even though the vampires were instructed to question everyone present, they had left out a particular person. A woman stood with her back against the wall watching the commotion in front of her. Her dress hung in black silk waves around her body, clutching her body perfectly, complementing as well as contrasting with her pale skin. Her dark mahogany hair fell in ripples across her back, shining softly when the light from the stain glass windows hit it. You could tell she was very beautiful, even if she had a black lace masquerade mask covering the top part of her face.

She stood unalarmed by what was happening in front of her, she sipped the goblet of champagne in her hand, her dark chocolate coloured eyes scanning the crowd for Clarissa Collins.

**Carrie's POV**

Two vampires walked beside either side of me as we made our way through the ballroom, towards the exit. Vampires covered every inch of the area, questioning everyone in plain sight; I looked around to see a woman staring right back at me, wearing a mask covering her identity. She didn't drop her gaze when she found me looking at her; there was something startling about her. She was very pretty, but it wasn't that, it was her presence and the way it made me feel. I fought back a shudder as she continued to stare at me, sipping her drink. I felt the vampire beside me tug impatiently at my arm, I turned my attention back to walking, but when I turned to look around again, she had disappeared as if she was never there.

Despite her gone, her presence still lingered with me for the entire plane journey back to Morganville.

**Short chapter I know, but I'll be updating later again today, so keep a look out for that! And who's this masked woman looking at Carrie? Any guesses...?**

**Please review to tell me what you think, and thanks for reading, hoped you liked it :)**


	19. Unraveled Truth

**Quick A/N- I updated earlier tonight, so make sure you have read chapter 18 before reading this one :)**

Chapter 19

**Shane's POV**

I stood at the arrivals at Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas, Claire and Carrie were coming back today and I had gone to pick them both up. The airport was quite small, and not many flights took off or landed here, that mostly happened at the bigger airport in Austin. An announcement blared overhead, saying that flight 239 from New York had just landed.

In about fifteen minutes I had Claire locked in my embrace, and then her mouth was on mine. She broke away and looked up smiling at me.

"Miss me?" she asked, slightly pouting.

"More than you can imagine." She grinned at my response before enveloping me into another hug.

Carrie's flight from London had still yet to land, and would take at least another two hours, so Claire and I decided to go for a coffee in the Starbucks that was in the airport. We sat down at a table; I asked how New York was as she told me in sips between her white mocha.

An overhead announcement stated that flight 628 from London had just landed, that was Carrie's flight. I helped Claire with her bags, as we walked out of Starbucks dumping the remainder of my coffee in the bin outside. We held hands as we walked back to the arrivals, just in time to see Carrie coming through the doors.

It must have been cold in London, because she was wearing a black coat with a turquoise blue dress that reached her knees. Her hair was in loose waves down her back, with her headphones in her ears. She was pushing a luggage trolley stacked high with suitcases and shopping bags. Her face broke into a smile when she saw me and Claire waving from the sidelines. She pushed her overloaded trolley towards us, slipping down her headphones.

Claire hugged her first, before I enveloped my daughter in a bear hug.

"How do you have so many bags?" I asked her. She only laughed in response.

We just managed to cram Claire and Carrie's bags into the boot of the car, but the rest of Carrie's shopping had to go in the back seat next to her. In the car ride back we talked about how each of their trips were, and before you knew it, we were heading back towards the Morganville borders.

**_Later that day..._**

It was getting dark now, by the time we had come back from the airport the sun was setting. Claire and Carrie were busy upstairs unpacking their bags; I was downstairs on the couch watching some mindless sitcom, my mind on other things. I was still thinking about asking Claire to marry me again, the ring burning with anticipation in my pocket. Since Claire had left Morganville seventeen years ago, she had sent me divorce papers from the state of Texas; I had signed the papers and sent them back, too pissed to confront her about it. Two weeks later, she was back to Miss Danvers. It was the biggest mistake in my life, letting her go, and I swore I wouldn't let her slip through my fingers again.

My 'other thing to do' that had to wait for Sunday was to decorate mine and Claire, and Carrie's room. I had painted the walls, put up wallpaper and bought new furniture and everything. I had asked Carrie what her favourite colour, which turned out to be purple, so I put up patterned purple wallpaper, decorated with black designs. I replaced the bookshelf, wardrobes and drawers with brand new dark wooden ones, even getting her a new bed with a purple and black satin duvet, with silver and black pillows and curtains. I put up a silver chandelier with diamonds, so that when you switched it on the room exploded into shining lights. I stuck on glow in the dark lights on the ceiling, so when you switched off the lights the ceiling glowed lightly. I also put up a mirror on the dresser, with gold fairy lights twirled around it.

I had given mine and Claire's room and makeover too; I had gone with a red and black theme. The walls were painted red with a black chandelier hanging on the ceiling. I put up a closet that took up the whole wall on the far side of the room, my clothes and stuff hadn't even managed to cover half the space the wardrobe provided, but I knew Claire had a lot of shoes so I hoped that would cover it, with mirrors covering the surface of the wardrobe. A large king sized four poster bed was against the opposite wall, with a red silk duvet covering the surface with gold and black sequined pillows. A dresser was against the other side of the wall, with a mirror on top with space for her make-up, jewellery and stuff.

Judging by their happy screams, I think they were happy with the results.

The doorbell rang twice in a row; I frowned wondering who would want to come by at this time. I set down my beer on the coffee table and went over to the front door. I shouted up the stairs that I'd get the door; I received two muffled responses over the quiet blare of music. Carrie had probably left her iPod on shuffle, as it was currently playing Arctic Monkeys.

I opened the door to reveal a vampire with messy black hair and eyes so dark, they looked almost black. _Flick._

"What do you want?" I asked, glaring at him.

"I need to see Carrie," he told me, trying to look behind me to see whether she was there. His voice was urgent, almost pleading.

"Well, she doesn't want to see you. In fact, she doesn't like you and if you ever come knocking at this door again, _I will stake you_," empathising on the last bit. And with that I closed the door in his face, I didn't look at his expression, but he can't have been happy.

"Who is it?" Carrie called from upstairs.

"No one important honey," I called back. Her response came back muffled as the song changed.

**Carrie's POV**

I loved my new room, it was perfect, I couldn't have asked for more. I had left the fairy lights on the dresser on and gave the room a lovely golden glow, the stars on the ceiling twinkling like glitter. I sorted through my shoes as I hummed along to the lyrics of Sleeping With Sirens new album. I still hadn't told anyone about the note that someone had left me in Barclay's hand. Oliver was still under the assumption that I had killed Barclay, and once again _saved the day _but I hadn't. I didn't know whether to tell them it wasn't me, or the note. The words kept repeating themselves over and over in my head _you lied to me Carrie Collins, you lied to me... _I was also becoming paranoid that this person would come after me or something; I wasn't going to be forgetting about this anytime.

"Carrie can you come here for a second?" Claire called from across the hall.

I walked to Claire and Shane's room which was the last room in the hall; I leaned against the doorway looking at their room. It was pretty amazing, with a red and black theme.

"So what's up?" I asked her sitting down at the edge of her bed. She was sitting by the large wardrobe at other side of the room, with a pile of shoe boxes and shopping bags surrounding her, glasses sitting on top of her head.

"I wanted to give you something... hold on..." she said rummaging through her bags, she brought out a box, not quite big as a shoe box, but close enough.

"Thanks," I said smiling at her, hoping it was shoes. I took the box from her before sitting down on the floor next to her.

I slid open the lid of the box and inside was a masquerade mask inside. It was made of black lace and netting. And it was exactly the same one the woman at the auction was wearing.

"It was you, wasn't it?" I asked her, my finger tracing the pattern on the mask, not looking at her.

She didn't answer until I looked up at her, then she nodded slightly. I sighed, each of us not sure what to say next.

"Just tell me the next time yeah? But I'll make sure you don't have to," she said, hugging me close. I nodded, burying my face in her soft hair; she stroked my hair rocking me back and forth.

Now I only had one problem to face._ High school. _

**So it was Claire! *dramatic music* expecting that? The next chapter will be about Carrie in high school. **

**But please REVIEW! Nobody's reviewed for the last couple of chapters, and I'd really love to know what people think and whether you guys even like it. I'd also love any suggestions, predictions and any other comments, so please review, cause I know people read it, I just want to know what people think.**

**But thanks for reading, I hoped you liked it but please review! I will really appreciate it :) **


	20. High School

Chapter 20

**Carrie's POV**

A loud ringing noise woke me up from my dreamless slumber. I groaned burying my head deeper under the pile of pillows on my bed. I muffledly heard the door to my bedroom over the blare of the alarm clock and through the numerous pillows piled on top of my head. The annoying ringing suddenly stopped and I felt someone hovering above me. I groaned and immerged from my little grotto of pillows, I stared bleary eyed at Shane who stared back at me. I buried my head back under the pillows.

"Come on Carrie, time for school," said Shane, trying to pry the pillows of my head. I groaned at the mention of school and clutched the pillows tighter. "If you get up in the next ten minutes, I'll make you waffles..." he said, his voice trailing off. My head snapped up at mention of waffles.

"With blueberries?" I questioned. He nodded in response.

"I don't like blueberries," I told him, dropping my head back under my mountain of pillows.

He said something again, but it came back slightly muted. I think it was a final warning to get out of bed, because I thought I heard a sigh and my door close. I peeked under the corner of my duvet to see that Shane was gone. I nestled back into my little cocoon of duvet, pillows and non-high school.

The thought of going to high school for the very first time scared the shit out of me. I didn't have the basic social skills most kids my age had developed over their awkward stages of puberty. I didn't have a clue about maths or science, I could add up alright and I knew my times tables, but asides from that nothing. I had most books that could be described as 'literature' and I had seen all of Shakespeare's plays at the Globe Theatre in London, the modernised version of course, but then nothing. I was going to get deemed too much of a dumbass for school and get kicked out.

But at least I didn't have to worry about the whole Barclay situation. It turned out Claire had staked Barclay and left that note for me, and it was her in the mask whilst I was walking out, which I had propped up on a large framed black and white city picture on my wall. We had a long talk about everything whilst sitting on her bedroom floor; she had talked to Amelie about the whole vampire-human-spy thing, and had convinced her that I would stop doing their dirty work for them. I didn't know how on earth she managed it, but she waved her magic wand, and here I was, attempting to be a normal teenager.

"CARRIE ALYSSA COLLINS, IF I DON'T SEE YOU UP, DRESSED AND READY IN FIFTEEN MINUTES, I WILL BURN YOUR SHOES!" I heard Claire scream at me whilst simultaneously hit my bedroom door.

The screaming and shoe threatening popped my bubble of thinking and was the motivation I needed to get out of my new, safe, warm bed and stumble my way into the bathroom. Once my teeth were brushed and the bathroom mirror was covered in steam from my shower, I went back to my room and debated what to wear. I settled for a dark blue pair of jeans with a white short sleeved Mickey Mouse top, with a woollen cardigan that reached above midway on my thigh. Settling for a pair or semi scuffed Converse; I left my hair natural, only brushing some hairspray though and putting a beanie over my head. I quickly dabbed some foundation on my face before putting on some liquid eyeliner and mascara, natural but not plain. After a final look in the mirror, I grabbed an owl ring of my dresser and put it on my right hand. I guess I looked okay... I looked presentable as well as decent, so I guess that counted as okay. I grabbed my bag, which contained a couple of brand new notebooks and a pencil case filled with stationary.

I made my way downstairs to the smell of waffles and coffee. Everyone was sat down at the table with waffles on their plates.

"So you finally decided to get out of bed then?" Claire asked, a small smile playing on her face.

I sat down between Eve and Shane, and gave her a sarcastic smile across the table.

"Yeah, your threat helped a bit," I told her, reaching for the stack or maple drenched waffles at the centre of the table.

Eve chuckled, "you know she would have done it."

I felt my eyes grow wide, "joke," Eve told me, seeing the expression on my face.

"You know, I was actually unsure about getting you all those pillows, but after seeing how much you've grown attached to them, it was actually a good decision," Shane said to me.

And before you knew it, the waffles were gone and I was standing at the gates of Morganville High, on my first day of school. I sighed and weaved my way through the crowded grounds full of students laughing and talking through to the reception.

The same woman, who showed me to the principal's office last week, was sat at the reception flicking through Us Weekly. She didn't look up as I walked towards her desk. I was about to say something to indicate I was here, but the loud ringing of the school bell interrupted the latest exploits of Kim and her secret wedding plans. She jumped up startled by the bell and finally acknowledged my existence.

"Carrie Collins?" she asked quizzical, adjusting her glasses on her nose.

"Yeah," I told her, over the sound of elephants trampling each other in the corridor. Translating into the entire student body opening and shutting lockers and walking to first period. She nodded slightly, before shuffling through the mess of papers pushed aside on her desk. She handed me a couple of papers paper clipped together.

"Okay, here is your schedule..." she said, pointing to the colour co-ordinated timetable. "And here is a map of the school...and here is how you get to each of you classes" she said, highlighting a route to each building, the highlighter the same colour as the colour of my class. "Oh, and could you get each teacher to sign this slip and give it back to me at the end of the day?"

I nodded and thanked her for her help, and made my way to my first class referencing to the now multicoloured map in my arms. Most people still loitered in the hallway, not yet going to first lesson. After climbing up two flights of stairs, I found my way to World History. The room had a world map covering the far side of the wall, with singular school desks, most of them empty. A woman, I was guessing the teacher, sat at the front of the class marking what looked like essays. She looked like she was in her early thirties and had dark brown hair reaching her shoulders.

"Erm... excuse me?" I asked not sure what to say. She looked up and smiled at me, which was somewhat reassuring.

"Carrie Collins?" she asked. I almost sighed in relief as I didn't have to explain myself. I nodded, giving her a small smile.

"Well, I've had a look at you history essay in you Morganville entrance paper, and I have to say, it's really quite good. I'm Mrs Evans by the way" she says giving.

"Um thanks, nice to meet you," I said, feeling myself blushing slightly.

I handed her the piece of paper to sign and sat down at a desk at the back of the room. Most people still hadn't arrived, and I shifted through the papers the woman at the reception gave me. My locker was somewhere near the English block, and my combo was written next to the locker number.

Eventually the lesson started and people started to file in, Mrs Evans started to talk about the First World War. I know I had only been here for about five minutes, but it was _very _boring. She was talking about the political side, and politics bored me to death. The hour dragged by and the end of period bell signalled the end of this lesson and the start of another one. I looked at my time table, Calculus. I almost sighed in frustration, if it wasn't for the figure that stepped in front of my desk. I glanced upwards to see the boy I met at my interview. Ethan.

"Hey," he said, over the sound of chairs scraping on the hard cold tiles of the floor. He was giving me a small smile; he had me fighting back a blush again. His hair was messy as ever and his blue eyes stared back at me.

"Hey," I said, keeping my eyes on him as I gathered my papers.

"I'm guessing your interview went okay then?" he asked as I got up.

"So well I have Calculus next," I said making a face.

He chuckled again and I could feel my ears turn red from under my beanie.

"Well, I guess we both have to endure the pain of math together then," he said grinning at me. I gave him a small smile and followed him out of the door, getting my now signed slip back from Mrs Evans, bracing myself for the boredom that is Calculus.

But I guess making a friend before second period was a good sign right?

**Carrie's first day of school! And she doesn't like blueberries...**

**The next chapter should hopefully be up tomorrow and Carrie's first day of high school will continue. But what do you think about her fighting off blushes for Ethan? Should they be a couple and forget all about Finn, or does Finn still have a place in Carrie's heart?**

**Thanks for reading and please review! :)**


	21. New Friends

Chapter 21

**Carrie's POV**

Calculus was boring as hell. I struggled to keep my eyes open the entire hour filled with pointless numbers and letters. The teacher was a balding man who looked about fifty dressed head to toe in corduroy, he droned on and on about pointless crap, which I drearily copied off the blackboard and struggled to restrain a yawn every other minute. A folded piece of paper landed on my desk. I frowned when I saw it had my name written across the top.

_You're going to die in double physics... E x_

I looked over at Ethan, who was sat at the desk to my right. He looked bored as hell and I pulled a face at him, which he responded with sticking his tongue back at me. Eventually the boredom that was Calculus ended and I was forced to endure something much worse. _Double physics_. I didn't even know how I managed to stay awake, especially as I didn't know what on God's name the teacher was going on about. The end of period bell made me jump from my slumped position on my chair. I frowned and blinked blurry eyed, remembering what was happening.

"Come on, it's time for lunch and I need pizza," said Ethan, practically jumping up and down in front of my desk. I quickly shoved the open textbook and notebook into my bag, and followed Ethan to the lunchroom, getting my signed slip from the teacher on the way out. The lunchroom was like any other stereotypical high school lunch room I guess. Food and tills lined up on one side of the room, and then circular tables with about six chairs covering the rest of the space. A large version of the Morganville school mascot was printed on the centre of the floor, but I found the venomous viper unnerving and to be honest, rather weird. I mean what was wrong with squirrels or unicorns... Okay, that sounded better in my head.

After paying for a packet of cheese balls, a Twinkie, a paper plate of fries and a diet cola, I followed Ethan and his tray stacked high with pizza, to a table towards the edge of the room where two guys and two girls where sitting down. They all looked up as I stood awkwardly beside Ethan, I started to become anxious.

"People, meet Collins. Carrie Collins meet Mia, Bella, Jaime and Corncob," he said gesturing to the people at the table, who all seemed nice as they smiled at me, in a non 'why are you about to sit with us?' way.

"Dude, I told you don't fucking call me Corncob," said a guy with blond hair, spiked in all directions, throwing an empty juice carton at Ethan.

"Please ignore Corncob Carrie, he still hasn't come to terms with his new name," said the girl Bella, who had thick dark brown that hung in luscious waves past her shoulders. She had big wide brown eyes, which were outlined in coats of mascara and eyeliner. She pulled out the empty chair beside her and gestured me to sit down, I smiled at her graciously and sat down beside her, Ethan sat down at the empty chair beside me. Mia sat next to her, she gave me a small smile but seemed a bit shy, and she had shoulder length blonde curly hair.

"Why are you called Corncob?" I asked curiously, opening the packet of my Twinkie.

"Because last week they had Corncobs in the cafeteria, and dumb ass over here thought he could fit the whole thing in his mouth. Ended up being stuck in his mouth for an hour and a half, whilst three people tried to pry it out of his mouth..." said Jaime, who was swinging back and forth in his chair. He had black hair with was hair sprayed upwards, you could still see the lines his hairbrush left behind. His light blue eyes grinned at me.

Corncob, who I still hadn't learnt his true name, glared at Jaime and threw a plastic spoon at me.

"Call me Zack, my name is Zack," he announced, standing up.

"Sit down Corncob," said Bella.

"Okay," said Zach/Corncob, returning back to his chair. His eyes turned back to me, "So Carrie, I hear you're new in town..." he asked me, suddenly everyone's eyes were on me.

The rest of lunch wasn't as awkward and uncomfortable as I thought; it actually flowed into easy conversation and laughter. I had told them me and my mom had moved out of Morganville when I was a baby, and I had only come back. I had asked Claire if she was okay with that excuse, I didn't want to tell people the truth that didn't already know, she said it was okay and it gave her an excuse too.

"Okay, time for the run down on everyone in this shit hole," said Bella, looking around. "Over there, we have a prime example of the early stages of human development in the form of cave men, also known as the school jocks" she said gesturing to a large table at the centre of the room, where the guys looked likey they had spent too much money on steroids amd were sitting wearing baseball jackets with their surnames printed on the back.

"Also somehow fit..." said Zach/Corncob, who I had learnt was openly bisexual.

Bella gave him a look of disgust before moving on, "and over there, are Morganville's equivalent to the Plastics," she said gesturing to a table close to the windows, wearing clothes that barely covered their assets and looked like they had replaced Crayola for their makeup.

"And then, you have us. The only decent and slightly cool people in this shitty town," she said grinning, just as the bell rang.

"Carrie, what lesson do you have next?" Ethan asked me, his tray now mpty of pizza.

"Um..." I said fishing out my timetable from my bag. "English Lit," I replied. It was the only subject that had looked slightly appealing.

"Mia has Lit next," he told me as I threw the remainder of my lunch in the bin.

Mia appeared by my side, giving me a small smile, "I'll show you the way, if you want?" she asked shyly.

"Yeah, that'll be great," I told her, giving her a reassuring smile.

"So, where did you stay after you left Morganville?" she asked me, as we sat down in the English room, trying to make conversation. She was quite short and only reached my shoulders.

"I moved around a lot," I explained. "Have you always lived in Morganville?" I asked.

"Sadly yes... I want to leave this shithole though, I want to move to Europe or somewhere and be a writer," she told me.

I was about to respond, when the teacher silenced all conversations and I was sucked into an hour of Jane Austen. Might sound weird... But I was finally starting to like high school.

**Ethan's POV**

Jaime, Bella and I were trying to extract copper using electrolysis in Chemistry, and we were failing miserably.

"Dude, you totally have the hots for her!" said Jaime, nudging me.

"I don't!" I tried to tell them convincingly, as well as myself.

"Bull, you totally fancy her," Bella said from across the lab table. "But I approve, she's hot and she seems awesome and I bet we totally have the same shoe size," she said adjusting her safety goggles.

Okay, I had to admit Carrie was very far along my attractive scale, she over took Mila Kunis when I first saw her, and she was close to kicking Megan Fox off my list.

"Okay... Maybe I do fancy her... just a bit..." I admitted, taking a piece of copper out of the solution and giving it to Jaime to weigh.

"You should ask her out then," said Jaime, writing down the microscopic weight of the copper we extracted into his book.

"Maybe I should ask Carrie out, I mean what's the worst could happen? She could only smack me across the face and then it would be totally awkward between us for the rest of high school, which would mean we couldn't hang out together ever..." I exaggerated.

"Yup, that's the worst of it..." said Bella.

Great, then I had nothing to lose. Note the sarcasm.

**Carrie's POV**

"And now you have my number," said Bella, handing back my phone with flourish and a grin. "I'll text you tonight."

Mia, Bella and I were walking out of the school gates, I had given my now signed slip back to the reception, where I was forced to endure small talk receptionist about my first day to school. Bella and Mia had waiting for me, which was quite nice of them. Bella was waiting for us outside of Bio, Mia and I had talked through sixth period Biology, and she was actually quite cool once we had got to know each other. We had loads of things in common with each other, and she had made me promise to iMessage her later.

Ethan was slouched against the brick wall entrance, he straightened up when he saw us coming out of the gates.

"Er, come on Mia... we need to go somewhere..." said Bella, grabbing Mia's arm, and dragging her away. Mia started to protest, but Bella whispered something in her ear, which sounded like 'I'll tell you later.'

"Bye Carrie, I'll talk to you later!" Bella yelled whilst dragging Mia around the corner. Mia let out a yelp, before holding up her hand to wave.

I frowned, "Well, that was weird..." I said, turning to Ethan.

"So how was your fist day?" Ethan asked, leaning against the wall.

"You know what, it was actually okay," I said smiling, looking mindlessly around.

"Cool, um... can I ask you something...?" he sounded nervous, and hesitant to ask.

I turned around to face him, "Um, yeah sure," I told him, wondering what I had done. Maybe he wanted me to stop hanging out with his friends or something...

"You don't have to say yes or anything, but..." his voice trailing off. "Will you go out with me?"

Well, _that_ was unexpected.

"Ethan, I just got out of some complicated shit and I just don't want to be in a relationship or anything right now..." I know it was a crappy excuse, but I just didn't want to be with anyone right now.

"Oh okay," he said, he sounded disappointed as if he were expecting it. _Shit, I am such a bitch, _I silently thought to myself. "No, it's fine Carrie, I get it," he said, seeing the expression on my face.

"I just want to be friends for now, it's not that I don't like you, I do, you're an awesome guy, any girl would be lucky to have you, I just don't want to be in a relationship right now," I told him, fiddling with my hands awkwardly.

"It's fine, don't worry. I'm happy with being friends. Hug?" he asked, opening his arms out.

I stepped into his arms, feeling is soft warm body against mine and his arms wrap around my waist. God, he was an amazing guy, as well as _normal. _I've never met someone who didn't come with a pair of fangs that liked me in that way. But Ethan wasn't what I wanted, or needed, there was only one person who ticked both boxes for me.

**Extra long chapter for you guys! I think her first day of high school went better than expected, but did she do the right thing by turning down Ethan?**

**The next chapter will be the last chapter in the story :( I'm probably going to write a sequel, if you guys have any ideas or suggestions feel free to tell me. A title for the sequel would be great help too :)**

**Any guesses what's going to happen in the next and final chapter? Thanks for reading and please review!**


	22. What Now?

Chapter 22

**Finn's POV**

She was ignoring me and I didn't blame her, but she was just being childish now. I had tried to contact her numerous amount of times, but she just didn't want to know. I got that she was upset and I understood, but she wasn't even giving me a chance to apologize! She was making it impossible for me and she knew it. If I don't love her as much as I do, then I probably wouldn't go to this level of effort, but I wasn't going to let this go.

It was her first day of high school and I knew she would be nervous. I was parked outside of the school in my car, the windows blackened out so I could see out, but anybody looking in would just see their reflections. I would go confront her as soon as she walked out school, and she wouldn't have her Dad being over protective and making decisions for her.

Then she came out, two girls on either side of her, but I wasn't paying attention to their pointless chattering and laughter, Carrie had my full attention. She was beautiful; my heart ached for her, just longing to have her in my arms once more. I hadn't seen her for so long, just seeing her beautiful face made everything seem better. I needed her.

Wait, who was she talking to? She was facing a boy and they looked like they were engaged in conversation. And before I knew it they were hugging. And smiling. They both looked happy. _Of course they're happy you idiot, _my sub conscious speaking to me. _Look at him; he's HUMAN, something you're never going to be. He can give her everything you can't, and I bet Shane won't disapprove of him nearly as much as he does with you. You're just a worthless vampire, give up. _I shook off my subconscious, I normally didn't listen to the pessimistic side of myself, but maybe I should listen to it now.

**Carrie's POV**

The house was silent as I dropped my keys on the table. I wasn't used to the silence, it was unnerving. Everyone was at work and they wouldn't be back until seven, which gave me four hours of being by myself. Michael worked at a music store and gave guitar lessons, Eve worked at Common Grounds for Oliver, which she silently bitched about at breakfast, apparently Oliver was a third degree asshole. Claire was working with Myrnin on some machine; I didn't know how she could cope working with Myrnin of all people, last time I saw the guy he made me talk to his spider the size of a hamster. And Shane had got a new job at this construction site near the edge of town, he said it was his first time doing something like this and was actually looking forward to it, he also said he needed the money after he spent all his savings on re-decorating.

I felt my phone ring in the pocket of my jeans; I took it out and glanced at the caller ID. I pressed decline once I saw who it was. Finn had been trying to call me nonstop ever since I caught him; he had tried to use the portal to see me as well, but I had blocked out all his efforts. Myrnin had added a new feature to the portals so you could stop someone from entering somewhere just by blocking them out, in other words you just had to think about them not entering and they didn't. I didn't know whether he knew about me going to Milan, but he didn't try to stop me. I knew I was being immature about the whole situation, and I should have just spoken to him about it, but I didn't want to be mature, I would be stubborn and ignore him.

I had a bag full of text books and homework I needed to read and understand before I could even think about doing homework, and I really didn't want to make the effort. I needed someone to go over basic math and science with me; I didn't learn the basics so this complicated stuff wasn't making any sense to me.

I sighed, climbing up the stairs dumping my school bag against my dresser and plugging my phone in its charger, before making my way to the bathroom to take a hot shower, grabbing my towel on the ay. I did all my thinking in the shower, even making decisions like what to have for breakfast. I still felt bad for saying no to Ethan, it felt like I had kicked a puppy and watch it whimper away, I knew needed to make it up to him, but I just wasn't into him they way he was with me. Why did I still have feelings for Finn? He was a lying ruthless vampire, me of all people should have learnt that vampires weren't to be trusted, but I fell for Finn's little act of pretending to be my friend. Why was he pretending anyway? Maybe he was hoping that I would sleep with him at the end of all of this. But anyway, I was going to forget all about him. I had a new life now, one that didn't involve vampires or anything put of the ordinary.

The water was slowly turning cold and that meant the end of my thinking time, I switched off the shower and stepped out, wrapping myself in my warm fluffy towel and leaving my dirty clothes in the hamper. I opened the bathroom door and the steam from the shower following me out, untying my hair from its bun and letting it loose around my back. I walked into my room, closing the door behind me and letting the towel fall to the floor, going to the dresser to get some underwear. I glanced up at the mirror on the dresser and screamed at what I saw behind me.

I spun around to see Finn lying down on my bed staring up at me.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I asked, bracing myself against the dresser, my heart still racing from the scream.

His eyes were wide and were trying to keep his eyes on mine. I frowned, and then realised I was standing butt naked in front of him.

"Oh _shit,_" I muttered before reaching for dressing robe on the chair. Finn came up vampire speed before I could get a hold on it, until he had me pressed up against the dresser. I squirmed against him.

"Carrie what you heard, it wasn't true. She hypnotised me, she made me. I would never say that, I would _never_ hurt you. I love you Carrie Collins," he said hands on either side of me pressed against the dresser, but still not exactly touching me.

He said he loved me. My mind didn't register his explanation, he said he loved me. I stared into his eyes; they were so dark they looked like shining black coals filled with emotion. And for some reason, I didn't care about anything else.

"I missed you," I told him, looking into his eyes, slowly wrapping my arms around the back of his neck, biting my lower lip. He stared back at me, his hands gently skimming my sides, I fought back a shudder at his cold touch, but it felt nice. My grip around his neck tightened, holding him closer to me, he stepped forward, closing the space left between us. We stared into each other's eyes, scared to get any closer but yearning with lust. He slowly bent his head until our lips brushed, they were soft against mine. It wasn't quite kissing and wanted more. I pressed my lips firmer against his, until he slid his tongue slid into my mouth, his hands holding me tighter against him, I let out a moan. My fingers knotted in his hair, bringing him closer to me. He groaned pushing me against the dresser, his mouth leaving mine and travelling across my jaw line and down my neck, nibbling my skin, leaving goose bumps where his mouth touched the skin.

Eventually we made it to the bed, the bed springs creaking against the weight of us both. I had managed to get off his t-shirt, my hands roaming against the hard planes of his chest. I was murmuring his name against the crook of his neck wanting more of him. I got my wish and soon all his clothes came off, and he was touching me in places that had me moaning in ecstasy.

"Carrie..." Finn whispered between heavy breaths, his mouth against the crook of my neck, just above a vein where the blood was pumping above my delicate skin. His lips where cold against the heat of my throat, his cold tongue sliding across my skin. I moaned and then froze when I felt the hardness of his teeth bite into my skin, feeling something warm run down my neck. Finn licked the blood that trailed down my skin, his mouth kissing its way up until he found the wounds his fangs left. He drank deeper from me, caressing my chest, one of my hands was clenched in his hair whist the other held the back of his neck wanting him to take more from me. Letting him drink from me was the most intense pleasure I've ever felt. My whole body was warm with pleasure, Finn brought his hips in rhythm with mine, sending ripples of pleasure throughout my body, I tightened my legs around his waist as his lips and tongue met mine again, his hands roaming my back.

I lay against Finn's chest, still trying to get my erratic breathing under control. Finn had an arm around my shoulders and another across my stomach, tracing patterns on my skin. I looked down at my body, to see that blood had dripped onto my stomach and I could feel the wound Finn had left where my shoulders left my neck dry up. Bruises and hickeys covered my neck and arms going down to my stomach, my breasts where swollen and were covered with purple marks from the bites. My lips where swollen and I was sore all over. I glanced up at Finn, who was staring up at the ceiling, to see that he was in a similar condition to me, only with scratch marks covering parts of him, and I could easily bet money that his back was the same. I blushed at the thought of me doing that to him.

I've had sex loads of times before, but it was with a vampire who didn't care about me and vice versa, but this, this was the first time I actually wanted to do it and it was amazing. Finn's hand traced the length of my back.

"Finn?" I asked, drawing circles on his muscular chest.

"Yeah?" he murmured, into my hair kissing my head softly.

"What do we do now?" I asked, nestling my head against his chest.

"I don't know," he whispered.

But that didn't matter, none of it did. All that mattered was right now.

**Well, Finn and Carrie have clearly made up... This is going to be the last chapter in the story, I am thinking of writing a sequel for this which will have more drama and suspence than this one, I have some ideas for it, but I would be really grateful for any ideas for plot lines and story titles.**

**Thank you so much for reading, and I hoped you liked it! I really appreciate all the follows and reviews, it means a lot. Please review with ideas for the sequel, especially a title, that would be great! Thank you :)**


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